No abstract

ObjectivesThe aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of and risk factors for hepatitis C or B virus (HCV or HBV) coinfection among HIV-infected pregnant women, and to investigate their immunological and virological characteristics and antiretroviral therapy use. MethodsInformation on HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) positivity and HCV antibody (anti-HCV) was collected retrospectively from the antenatal records of HIV-infected women enrolled in the European Collaborative Study and linked to prospectively collected data. ResultsOf 1050 women, 4.9% [95% confidence interval (CI) 3.6-6.3] were HBsAg positive and 12.3% (95% CI 10.4-14.4) had anti-HCV antibody. Women with an injecting drug use(r) (IDU) history had the highest HCV-seropositivity prevalence (28%; 95% CI 22.8-35.7). Risk factors for HCV seropositivity included IDU history [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 2.92; 95% CI 1.86-4.58], age (for 35 years vs. o25 years, AOR 3.45; 95% CI 1. 66-7.20) and HBsAg carriage (AOR 5.80; 95% CI 2.78-12.1). HBsAg positivity was associated with African origin (AOR 2.74; 95% CI 1.20-6.26) and HCV seropositivity (AOR 6.44;). Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) use was less likely in HIV/HCV-seropositive than in HIV-monoinfected women (AOR 0.34;. HCV seropositivity was associated with a higher adjusted HIV RNA level ( 1 0.28log 10 HIV-1 RNA copies/ mL vs. HIV-monoinfected women; P 5 0.03). HIV/HCV-seropositive women were twice as likely to have detectable HIV in the third trimester/delivery as HIV-monoinfected women (AOR 1.95; P 5 0.049). ConclusionsAlthough HCV serostatus impacted on HAART use, the association between HCV seropositivity and uncontrolled HIV viraemia in late pregnancy was independent of HAART.Keywords: epidemiology, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, pregnancy DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-1293.00599.x HIV Medicine (2008 Coinfection with these viruses is a growing problem and liver disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected people in resource-rich settings [3][4][5].The clinical management of HIV-infected individuals coinfected with HCV or HBV is challenging, and HIV infection is known to have a negative impact on the outcome of HCV and HBV infections [6,7]. Although whether or not HCV directly impacts upon HIV disease progression remains controversial [3,[8][9][10], the complex interactions between HIV/HCV coinfection and highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) use and the indirect effect of these on HIV disease progression are increasingly apparent [6,7,11]. Few studies have addressed the issue of coinfection with HCV and/or HBV in HIV-infected pregnant women to date [12][13][14][15] and, in particular, there are no data on the prevalence of HIV/HCV or HIV/HBV coinfection in antenatal populations in Europe. Understanding the epidemiology of HBV, HCV and HIV coinfection in pregnant women is important because of vertical transmission risks [16,17] and to inform clinical management.We conducted a substudy within the European Collaborative Study (ECS) to estimate the prevalence of and ...

Further implementation of a comprehensive approach for the prevention of HIV infection in infants, including more extensive ART regimen, as recommended by WHO, would help Ukraine to achieve the strategic goal of virtual elimination of HIV infection in infants by 2010.

No abstract

Our results suggest that these days knowledge of HIV infection neither influences the desire for children nor the decisions regarding pregnancy in HIV-infected women living in Europe.