Bloodborne HIV: Don't Get Stuck!

Studies find new HIV infections in pregnant women

Most women in Africa get tested for HIV during antenatal care — if they are found to be infected, they can take antiretroviral treatment (ART) to protect their babies. But even if a pregnant woman tests HIV-negative, she can still infect her baby if she gets HIV later when she is still pregnant or breastfeeding.

To see how often pregnant women get HIV, many studies re-tested women at delivery or shortly after birth. Reports from 7 studies – 2 in eSwatini (Swaziland), 4 in South Africa, and 1 in Zimbabwe – show women getting HIV at rates >10% per year when they are pregnant or shortly after birth (Table 1). Most of these rates are reliable — from large studies 58-226 new infections.

Table 1: New infections in pregnant and post-partum women

What did studies do to find the source of new HIV infections in pregnant women?

Trace and test sexual partners? None of these studies traced and tested any of the women’s sexual partners. Most of the women had only one partner – the father of their baby — during the time they got new infections. This was not only a scientific mistake (lazy science), but it was also an ethical “oversight.” If a husband was found to be HIV-negative, the couple should be warned to protect the husband.

Look for blood-borne risks? No one looked. No study presented any list of women’s skin-piercing procedures, such as injections, blood tests, infusions, possible wound contact with bloody clothes or gloves, etc. No study assessed infection control practices for any skin-piercing procedure or facility. No study reported looking to see if women treated at the same facilities at similar times had very similar HIV.

The rate of new infections in pregnant women vs. the % of adults with HIV

How much do new infections in pregnant women contribute to Africa’s worst epidemics? The studies in Table 1 come from 3 of the 5 countries in Africa with the worst HIV epidemics. These studies suggest that new HIV infections in pregnant women – from whatever source – make a big contribution to Africa’s worst epidemics (Table 2):

• In eSwatini (Swaziland), 2 studies found pregnant women got HIV at rates of 16.8% and 19% per year. If women got HIV at such rates for <2 years, the percent who would be infected would be greater than the percent of all adults who are HIV-positive.
• In South Africa, 4 studies found pregnant women got HIV at rates from 10.7% to 12.2% per year. If women got HIV at such rates for <2 years, the percent who would be infected would be greater than the percent of all adults who are HIV-positive.
• In Zimbabwe, one study found pregnant women got HIV at 13.3% per year. If women got HIV at that rate for 1 year, the percent who would be infected would equal the percent of all adults who are HIV-positive.

 Table 2: Number of years at observed rates of HIV incidence to reach each countries average adult HIV prevalence

* % of adults aged 15-49 years who are HIV-positive. † rate at which women get new infections (%/year or number per 100 person-years).

New HIV infections in pregnant women are hard to explain through sex. Women with HIV-positive partners have been found to get HIV at 10%/year or less in Africa and elsewhere, even when couples don’t know the wife is at risk (studies test and re-test husbands and wives, but don’t tell them if someone’s infected). Hence, observed rates of >10%/year for new HIV infections in pregnant women would be high even if all their partners were HIV-positive. But that’s absurd.

It’s reasonable to assume that when a pregnant women is HIV-negative, the percent of husbands with HIV is less the percent of all adults in a country who are infected (consider: women are more often infected than men; and many husbands who are infected have an HIV-positive wife). Hence, one could expect pregnant women would get HIV from sex rates of about:

• 2.7%/year in Swaziland (10% of Swaziland’s 27.4% adult HIV prevalence)
• 1.9%/year in South Africa (10% of South Africa’s 18.8% adults HIV prevalence)
• 1.3%/year in Zimbabwe (10% of Zimbabwe’s 13.3% adult HIV prevalence)

These estimated rates are far less than rates observed in the studies reported in Table 1.

Additional information

Data in tables 1-3 are from references 1-7 and 10-17. Data in bold in these tables are estimated from reported data as explained in the Appendix Table in reference 9.

Table 3, below, reports findings from 8 other studies in 7 African countries showing pregnant women getting new infections at rates from 6.1% to 8% per year, lower than in Table 1, but so high that people should be looking closely to see if women are getting HIV from healthcare.

Table 3: New infections in pregnant and post-partum women, 8 more studies

References

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