HIV increased risk of infection during pregnancy

The risk of infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is increased during pregnancy, according to a prospective study whose results are published in the "Lancet".

Dr. Ronald Gray of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and colleagues followed 2,188 Ugandan women during pregnancy and lactation, and 8,473 women who were not pregnant and non-lactating all initially seronegative.

HIV incidence was 2.3 cases per cent per annum during pregnancy, 1.3 percent of cases per year during lactation and 1.1 cases per cent per year in women neither pregnant nor in suckling, the authors report.

Even after adjusting the results to take into account the influence of other factors such as age, marital status, education, number of sexual partners, the fact of suffering or not a genital ulcer and use condoms, the incidence of infection in pregnant or suckling is 2.16 and 1.16 cases per 100 100 annual cases, respectively, they specify.

"I was surprised that after adjusting for all the behaviors that we could think of, we observed always increased during pregnancy risk," was surprised Dr. Gray.

"We assume that two phenomena may increase the risk for pregnant women," he added, "is the hormonal changes during pregnancy, leading to changes in the lining of the genital tract, especially in the neck of the uterus, or an immunological effect of pregnancy may increase the vulnerability. "

These results are "very strong arguments in favor of condom use during pregnancy to prevent HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases," said the scientist.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. James McIntyre, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, argues that pregnant women are aware of the increased risk of HIV infection and potential risk prevention strategies.

These results suggest that the HIV test is done in early pregnancy in most programs is problematic, says the doctor.