Background: On the verge of 4th decade of the AIDS epidemic, the world has turned the corner- it has halted and begun to reverse the spread of HIV. But the prevalence of HIV among pregnant women in India is still of great concern, especially to prevent HIV in children. Prevalence of HIV infection in pregnant women has ranged 0.8% to 1.3%. Thus making it a concentrated HIV epidemic. Even then, due to safety issues and social stigma researches are less in number. And, there is conflicting data on effect of HIV infection as well as ART on pregnancy outcomes. The objective of this study were to evaluate pregnancy outcome & effect of HAART on pregnancy in HIV infected women.
Methodology: Prospective cohort analysis of 132 HIV infected women was conducted in a tertiary care hospital for a period of June 2012 to May 2018. Women received ART for prevention of MTCT as per NACO guidelines throughout the study. The compliance of use of HAART and its effect on development of anaemia was analysed. CD4 count was done and its association with the adverse effect was analysed.
Results: Mean age of study participants is 27.3 years. Majority of the women is hailing from low socio economic status. HIV infected women presenting to ANC clinic reduced from 1.1% in2012 to 0.73%. Maternal HIV infection is associated with preterm labour in 32.6%, PROM in 26.1% & low birth weight in 57.6%. Incidence of occurrence of adverse effects increased with reduced maternal CD4 cell counts. Compliance with continuation of HAART reduced with low socioeconomic status, late start and occurrence of anaemia. HAART treated HIV positive pregnant women has anaemia in 38.4%.
Conclusion: Maternal HIV infection is associated with increased incidence of adverse obstetrical outcomes. This incidence increases with low CD4 counts. HAART treated HIV positive pregnant women should be given adequate hematinic supplementation to prevent development of anaemia.
Keywords: Human immunodeficiency virus, Highly active antiretroviral therapy, Preterm birth, Fetal growth restriction
