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Owuroola Adewale
Each year an estimated 1.3 million women with HIV are pregnant. Most of these women live in sub-Saharan Africa. Pregnant women living with untreated HIV have an increased risk of adverse perinatal outcomes including preterm birth, stillbirth, and babies being born with low birthweight or small for their gestational age when compared with women without HIV.
Since 2013, WHO has recommended that all pregnant women with HIV receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) to improve maternal health outcomes and reduce the risk of mothers transmitting HIV to their unborn babies. This has resulted in an increase in the global proportion of pregnant women receiving ART from 44% in 2010 to 82% in 2022.
However, even with treatment, pregnant women with HIV still have an increased risk of adverse perinatal outcomes. Data on pregnancy outcomes associated with different drugs that are part of triple drug ART regimens is limited, as very few and small randomised controlled trials of ART regimens in pregnant women with HIV have been conducted. In particular, specific drugs that are part of every triple drug ART regimen called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) have not been compared with regard to pregnancy outcomes.
Read the full story on the Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH) website.