Socio-demographic prerequisites of perinatal HIV infection in the Voronezh Region

Abstract

In order to assess the socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics of HIV-infected pregnant women in the Voronezh region, which increase the risks of perinatal HIV infection, an analysis was carried out for the period 2017–2021. The materials were official statistics and personalized data from the registers and surveillance maps of the Voronezh Regional Clinical Center for AIDS Prevention and Control. There was an increase in positive results (per 1000 tests) during screening examinations of pregnant women, with a stable proportion (34 %) over the past 5 years among those who gave birth to HIV-positive people identified for the first time when registering for pregnancy. In the cohort of HIV-infected women, an accumulation of persons with parenteral infection, escaping from medical supervision due to behavioral characteristics, was revealed. It was found that among the reasons why women are not registered for pregnancy, there is a high proportion of officially unemployed (72.5 %), insufficient level of education and awareness about HIV. Compared with the general population of pregnant women in the region, the proportion of late registration for pregnancy among HIV-infected pregnant women is 17 times higher, and the proportion of births among women who are not registered for pregnancy is 8,2 times higher. The detection of HIV in women at a late stage or after childbirth is also caused by the material benefits of the status of a single mother (63.1 % are not married), which additionally leads to the absence of an HIV examination of the child's father. With a statistically small number of births in HIV-infected women in the region, these reasons led to the implementation of vertical HIV transmission in 5.9 % of newborns in 2021