HIV INFECTION AND MATERNAL MORTALITY

Maternal Mortality and HIV: An Overview

Contextual factors such as local policies and cultural norms, as well as socioeconomic factors, play a role in women’s ability to access care and receive appropriate treatment during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum.1 This is true for all women, and particularly so for the 17 million women living with HIV globally, the vast majority of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and are of repro...

HIV and maternal mortality: turning the tide.

The two top causes of death in women of reproductive age globally are HIV/AIDS and complications related to pregnancy and childbearing, which account for 19% and 15% of all deaths in women aged 15–44 years, respectively. The growing burden of HIV infection in young sexually active women and the maternal health problems that they face have been described as two intersecting epidemics. In setting...

Postpartum Hemorrhage Causes Maternal Mortality

Antiretroviral treatment of maternal HIV infection.

QUESTION One of my pregnant patients tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus. Will HIV therapy put her pregnancy outcome at risk? ANSWER The biggest risk is vertical transmission of HIV to her baby. She should be treated with combination therapy; triple therapy is required to reduce vertical transmission. Zidovudine is not teratogenic in humans, but information on other antiretrovira...

Breastfeeding and maternal HIV-1 disease progression and mortality.

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between breastfeeding and disease progression among HIV-infected women in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. DESIGN AND METHODS Cohort study design with Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS The relative risk of death comparing women who recently had been breastfeeding to those who were not breastfeeding was 0.47 (95% confidence interval, 0.18-1.20). Neither br...