The
Prevalence of Hepatitis B and C in HIV Positive Pregnant Women
Hepatitis
B, hepatitis
C and HIV
share at least one common route of infection: blood to blood
contact through the shared use of contaminated needles or
other injection
drug use paraphernalia. In the current study,
researchers evaluated the prevalence of hepatitis B and
hepatitis C virus coinfection
among pregnant
women who are infected by HIV and who attend
an obstetric complications prenatal clinic.
A
de-identified research obstetric HIV database was reviewed
regarding patient demographic characteristics, risk factors
for infection, history of sexually
transmitted diseases, and initial CD4 count.
Results
· 455
women infected with HIV with 572 pregnancies were delivered
over 11 years.
· The
overall prevalence of HIV and hepatitis B or C virus coinfection
in this population was 6.3%.
· More
specifically, 1.5% was coinfected with hepatitis B virus,
and 4.9% was coinfected with hepatitis C virus.
· Patients
with hepatitis virus were more likely to use intravenous drugs (52%
vs 18%; P < .01) and alcohol (38% vs 5%; P <
.01).
· Coinfected
patients were older (28 vs 25.6 years; P=.04), but there
were no racial differences.
· Median
baseline CD4 counts in hepatitis B virus coinfected patients
were significantly lower (310 cells/mm3) than
those in either hepatitis C virus coinfected patients (453
cells/mm3) or patients who were not coinfected
with HIV (414 cells/mm3).
In
conclusion the authors write, “One of 16 pregnant women
who were infected with HIV virus was coinfected with hepatitis
B or hepatitis C virus. Hepatitis B coinfections appear
to be associated with more compromised immune status in
our cohort.”
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas,
TX.
09/21/05
Reference
P
Santiago-Munoz and others. Prevalence of hepatitis B and
C in pregnant women who are infected with human immunodeficiency
virus.
American Journal of Obstetrics and
Gynecology 193(3 Suppl):1270-1273. September 2005.
