Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PARIS, Sept 30 (AFP) - Hormonal changes may expose a pregnant woman to a higher risk of HIV infection, a study published on Saturday in the British medical weekly The Lancet suggests.
US-based doctors monitored infection rates for the AIDS virus among more than 10,500 Ugandan women, about a fifth of whom were pregnant or breast-feeding.
The volunteers were all routinely tested for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during the study period, and gave details about their social background, sexual activity, use of condoms and relationship with men to the researchers.
After taking behavioural and socio-economic factors into account, the investigators found that women who were pregnant were more than twice as likely to become infected as women who were not pregnant.
Two previous studies conducted in Africa have also come to roughly the same result but this is the first to take the important step of factoring in poverty and safe-sex practises, which influence the risk of infection.
The authors, led by Ronald Gray of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, say the reason why pregnant women appear to be especially vulnerable to HIV is unclear, and call on other researchers to verify their results.
They theorise that pregnancy causes hormonal changes which may thin the protective mucous lining of the vagina or may affect a woman's immune system, making it more susceptible to takeover by HIV.
"It would be prudent to warn women of this potential risk of HIV acquisition during pregnancy, and to promote safe sex (i.e. monogamy and condom use), or sexual abstinence where feasible," the study says.
ri/ec
Health-AIDS-women-pregnancy-X%
COPYRIGHT 2005 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.
