Prevalence of indeterminate human immunodeficiency virus western blot results in pregnant women attended at a public hospital in Presidente Prudente, Brazil

Abstract

The AIDS epidemic is spreading rapidly among women worldwide, offering increasing opportunities for vertical transmission of HIV. In Brazil, the prevalence of HIV infection among pregnant women is less than 1%. Therefore, the positive predictive value of an HIV EIA test tends to be lower than the more frequent indeterminate Western blot result. Pregnant women receiving antenatal care, from 2000 to 2004, at a public secondary hospital in the city of Presidente Prudente, São Paulo, Brazil, were systematically screened for HIV by means of two distinct EIA tests, in order to determine the prevalence of indeterminate Western blot results among pregnant women showing discordance in both HIV EIA tests and indirect immunofluorescence assay. Confirmatory indirect immunofluorescence was performed on material for all women with positive results in both EIA tests. Whenever there were positive results in EIA and IIA, the applicant was retested by the initial screening assay. Only those not showing concordance in results in EIA and IAA had a Western blot performed. The viral load was measured in pregnant women with positive or indeterminate Western blot results. Out of 9,786 sera, 105 (1.0%) were positive in the two HIV EIA screening tests, confirmed by indirect immunofluorescence. Among these women, Western blot was interpreted as indeterminate in 11 (0.1%) cases and their viral load was <50 copies/mL. We found a prevalence of 0.1% HIV indeterminate Western blots in pregnant women from Presidente Prudente and the surrounding region; none of these pregnant women had positive HIV viral loads.

HIV-1-mother-to-child transmission and associated characteristics in a public maternity unit in Presidente Prudente, Brazil

“…However, this limitation can be attenuated by the fact that PH is the only referral center for at-risk or HIV-1-infected pregnant women in the DRS XI area (CREMONEZI et al, 2005;ALVES et al, 2009). In this respect, the study involved 81% of all mother-infant pairs screened for MTCT who were referred to the Adolfo Lutz Institute (ALI), between 2002 and 2007.…”

Rapid HIV diagnostic test in undocumented pregnant women applied at an inner-city teaching hospital

“…In these units, following the National Program of Obstetrics and Neonatal Attention, doctors are oriented to screen pregnant women for HIV. Furthermore, pregnant women at high-risk of infection by HIV and not previously tested during antenatal care are preferentially directed to a specialized regional public maternity unit 8 .…”

“…Clinical or pharmacological support was offered, as recommended by the Governmental Protocol 3,4,17 . After leaving the TH, the mothers were referred to a specialized regional public maternity unit 8 .…”

HIV Indeterminate Western Blot Results in Blood Donors in Northeast of Iran, 2009-2014

“…IV is spreading rapidly among people word wide (1). Most of infections are due to HIV1, which belongs to retrovirus family (2), and infects CCR5 + , CD4 + lymphocytes (3,4).…”

“…Infection with this virus leads to immune suppression and finally acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) (6).Early HIV detection is depended on antibody screening tests against the virus by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method (7). Whenever first serodiagnostic test is positive, confirmatory tests such as: Nucleotide Amplification Test (NAT) (8,9), Recombinant ImmunoBlotting Assay (RIBA) (10), western Blot (WB) (1,9,(11)(12)(13) and recently Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) are used to verify viral infection (12,14). The most confirmatory practical test, actually the gold standard method is WB (1,14).…”