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HIV acquisition in pregnancy: implications for mother‐to‐child transmission at the population level in sub‐Saharan Africa
INTRODUCTION: A recent sero‐discordant couple study showed an elevated risk of HIV‐acquisition during the pregnancy/postpartum period per‐condomless‐coital‐act. This, along with previous studies, has led to concern over possible increased risk of mother‐to‐child (vertical) transmission, due to the i...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8454677/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34546647 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25783 |
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author | Marston, Milly Risher, Kathryn Mahy, Mary I. |
author_facet | Marston, Milly Risher, Kathryn Mahy, Mary I. |
author_sort | Marston, Milly |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: A recent sero‐discordant couple study showed an elevated risk of HIV‐acquisition during the pregnancy/postpartum period per‐condomless‐coital‐act. This, along with previous studies, has led to concern over possible increased risk of mother‐to‐child (vertical) transmission, due to the initial high viral load in the first months after seroconversion, in a time when the woman and health services may be unaware of her status. This study looks at whether behavioural differences during the pregnant/postpartum period could reduce the impact of elevated risk of HIV acquisition per‐condomless‐coital‐act at the population level. METHODS: We used data from 60 demographic and health surveys from 32 sub‐Saharan African countries. Using the HIV status of couples, we estimated differences in serodiscordancy between HIV‐negative women who were pregnant/postpartum compared to those who were not pregnant/postpartum. We compare the risk of sexual activity over the pregnant/postpartum period to those not pregnant/postpartum. Using these risks of serodiscordancy and sexual activity along with estimates of increased HIV risk in the pregnancy/postpartum period per‐condomless‐coital‐act, we estimated a population‐level risk of HIV acquisition and acute infection, during pregnancy/postpartum compared to those not pregnant/postpartum. RESULTS: Sexual activity during pregnancy/postpartum varies considerably. In general, sexual activity is high in the first trimester of pregnancy, then declines to levels lower than among women not pregnant/postpartum, and is at its lowest in the first months postpartum. Adjusted for age and survey, pooled results show HIV‐negative pregnant women are less likely to have an HIV‐positive partner compared to those not pregnant/postpartum (risk ratio (RR) = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.68–0.89) and comparing the postpartum period (RR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.73–0.99). Estimated population‐level risk for HIV acquisition and acute infection in pregnancy/postpartum was lower than would be inferred directly from per‐condomless‐coital‐act estimates in most countries, over the time of most risk of mother‐to‐child transmission, though there was variation by country and month of pregnancy/postpartum. CONCLUSIONS: Estimates of population‐level HIV acquisition risk in sub‐Saharan Africa should not be taken directly from per‐condomless‐coital‐act studies to estimate vertical transmission. Changes in sexual behaviour and differences in HIV‐serodiscordancy during pregnancy/postpartum reduce the impact of increased risk of HIV acquisition per‐condomless‐coital‐act, this will vary by region. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8454677 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84546772021-09-27 HIV acquisition in pregnancy: implications for mother‐to‐child transmission at the population level in sub‐Saharan Africa Marston, Milly Risher, Kathryn Mahy, Mary I. J Int AIDS Soc Supplement: Research Articles INTRODUCTION: A recent sero‐discordant couple study showed an elevated risk of HIV‐acquisition during the pregnancy/postpartum period per‐condomless‐coital‐act. This, along with previous studies, has led to concern over possible increased risk of mother‐to‐child (vertical) transmission, due to the initial high viral load in the first months after seroconversion, in a time when the woman and health services may be unaware of her status. This study looks at whether behavioural differences during the pregnant/postpartum period could reduce the impact of elevated risk of HIV acquisition per‐condomless‐coital‐act at the population level. METHODS: We used data from 60 demographic and health surveys from 32 sub‐Saharan African countries. Using the HIV status of couples, we estimated differences in serodiscordancy between HIV‐negative women who were pregnant/postpartum compared to those who were not pregnant/postpartum. We compare the risk of sexual activity over the pregnant/postpartum period to those not pregnant/postpartum. Using these risks of serodiscordancy and sexual activity along with estimates of increased HIV risk in the pregnancy/postpartum period per‐condomless‐coital‐act, we estimated a population‐level risk of HIV acquisition and acute infection, during pregnancy/postpartum compared to those not pregnant/postpartum. RESULTS: Sexual activity during pregnancy/postpartum varies considerably. In general, sexual activity is high in the first trimester of pregnancy, then declines to levels lower than among women not pregnant/postpartum, and is at its lowest in the first months postpartum. Adjusted for age and survey, pooled results show HIV‐negative pregnant women are less likely to have an HIV‐positive partner compared to those not pregnant/postpartum (risk ratio (RR) = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.68–0.89) and comparing the postpartum period (RR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.73–0.99). Estimated population‐level risk for HIV acquisition and acute infection in pregnancy/postpartum was lower than would be inferred directly from per‐condomless‐coital‐act estimates in most countries, over the time of most risk of mother‐to‐child transmission, though there was variation by country and month of pregnancy/postpartum. CONCLUSIONS: Estimates of population‐level HIV acquisition risk in sub‐Saharan Africa should not be taken directly from per‐condomless‐coital‐act studies to estimate vertical transmission. Changes in sexual behaviour and differences in HIV‐serodiscordancy during pregnancy/postpartum reduce the impact of increased risk of HIV acquisition per‐condomless‐coital‐act, this will vary by region. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-09-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8454677/ /pubmed/34546647 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25783 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Journal of the International AIDS Society published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the International AIDS Society. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Supplement: Research Articles Marston, Milly Risher, Kathryn Mahy, Mary I. HIV acquisition in pregnancy: implications for mother‐to‐child transmission at the population level in sub‐Saharan Africa |
title | HIV acquisition in pregnancy: implications for mother‐to‐child transmission at the population level in sub‐Saharan Africa |
title_full | HIV acquisition in pregnancy: implications for mother‐to‐child transmission at the population level in sub‐Saharan Africa |
title_fullStr | HIV acquisition in pregnancy: implications for mother‐to‐child transmission at the population level in sub‐Saharan Africa |
title_full_unstemmed | HIV acquisition in pregnancy: implications for mother‐to‐child transmission at the population level in sub‐Saharan Africa |
title_short | HIV acquisition in pregnancy: implications for mother‐to‐child transmission at the population level in sub‐Saharan Africa |
title_sort | hiv acquisition in pregnancy: implications for mother‐to‐child transmission at the population level in sub‐saharan africa |
topic | Supplement: Research Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8454677/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34546647 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25783 |
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