Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Volume 8 (2000), Issue 3-4, Pages 172-175
doi:10.1155/S1064744900000235

A Study to Determine the Incidence and Prevalence of Newly Discovered Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection During the Prenatal Care Period

Richard M. Grimes,1,5 Geetanjali Srivastava,1,3 Andrew W. Helfgott,2,4 and Nancy L. Eriksen2

1Department of Management and Policy Sciences, School of Public Health, The University of Texas—Houston Health Science Center, Houston, TX, USA
2Department of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, The University of Texas—Houston Health Science Center, Houston, TX, USA
3Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago Children's Hospital, Chicago, IL, USA
4Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Pensacola, FL, USA
5RAS-345, PO Box 20186, Houston 77225-0186, Texas, USA

Received 13 December 1999; Accepted 13 March 2000

Copyright © 2000 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Objectives: This study asked the following questions: 1) Does HIV testing in pregnancy identify women who previously were not known to be HIV positive? 2) When in pregnancy are women identified as HIV infected? 3) Does HIV seroconversion occur during the prenatal care period?

Methods: Medical records of 97 women from two primarily indigent care hospitals in Houston, TX who were found to be HIV positive at delivery were reviewed to determine if they had tested positive during the prenatal care period. Demographics and time of gestation of the prenatal testing also were recorded. The outcome measures were: 1) number of women found positive during prenatal care; 2) week of gestation at discovery of HIV positivity; and 3) number of women seroconverting between the initiation of prenatal care and delivery.

Results: Thirty women were known to be HIV positive prior to pregnancy. Fifty-six women were found to be positive during prenatal care and the seropositivity of 44 was discovered before the 34th week of pregnancy. Ten women were found to be positive at their first prenatal visit, which occurred after the 34th week. Date of testing was unknown for two women. Eleven women who received no prenatal care were found to be HIV positive at delivery. There were no seroconversions while women were under prenatal care.

Conclusions: HIV testing at delivery did not find any HIV-positive women who had tested negative during prenatal care. Testing is very important for women who do not receive prenatal care. Making certain that high-risk women get into prenatal care also is very important. Infect. Dis. Obstet. Gynecol. 8:172–175, 2000.