Perinatal risk factors for HIV-infected pregnant women

We studied perinatal risk factors in a group of 250 HIV-infected pregnant women, 28.8% of whom were injecting drug users (IDUs) as a part of American International Alliance Project to Prevent Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in Odessa region. HIV-infected IDUs had renal disease three times more often, and chronic hepatitis B and C 1.7 times more often. One of every three of the women surveyed had chronic thrombophlebitis; 18.7% had tuberculosis. Sixty eight percent of HIV-infected pregnant women had sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The group of IDUs was 2.2 times as likely to deliver babies prematurely. Based on the perinatal risk factors, every third HIV-infected pregnant woman who did not use drugs and every second HIV-positive pregnant IDU in this study qualified for a high-risk category.