Utilization of therapeutic intervention to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV in a teaching hospital in Kolkata, India
Chaudhuri, S.; Mundle, M.; Konar, H.; Das, C.; Talukdar, A.; Ghosh, U.Sankar.
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research 36(3): 619-625
2010
ISSN/ISBN: 1341-8076 PMID: 20598046 DOI: 10.1111/j.1447-0756.2009.01161.xDocument Number: 214148
To assess the uptake of an HIV screening program and therapeutic intervention to minimize the risk of mother to child transmission. This was a cross-sectional, observational study with retrospective data obtained from patient medical records. Pregnant women presenting to a tertiary care center in Kolkata, India, from 1 January 2004 - 31 December 2007 underwent HIV serology by rapid test after receiving group counseling. Care was administered using a standard national protocol by a multi-disciplinary team of health-care personnel. Main outcome measures were: acceptance of pretest counseling and HIV testing by pregnant women attending antenatal clinic services, post-test counseling rate, coverage rate of nevirapine to mother-child pairs, and averted HIV infection in children. Of the 52 127 new antenatal booking visits, 49 580 (95.11%) women attended pretest counseling and 47 506 (91.13%) women accepted HIV testing. Eighty-six women were found to be seropositive. The seroprevalence rate of HIV infection was 0.17%. Thirty-seven mothers (88%) and all newborn infants (100%) had received nevirapine prophylaxis. Overall nevirapine coverage rate was 48%. Twenty-four of the mother-infant pairs that we assessed had infants who were aged over 18 months by June 2008. Eleven (45.83%) of these women turned up with their babies for a blood test at 18 months. Three (27.27%) babies tested reactive. As uptake of testing is high and detection of HIV-infected women in pregnancy remains very low, a radical rethinking of policies on therapeutic intervention and their implementation now needs to be undertaken.
Document emailed within 0-6 h
