"Genital HSV detection among HIV-1-infected pregnant women in labor"
Filed under Pregnancy
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21527986
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To compare genital HSV shedding among HIV-positive and HIV-negative women.
METHODS:
Women with and without known HIV infection who delivered at the University of Washington Medical Center between 1989-1996 had HSV serologies done as part of clinical care. Genital swabs from HSV-2-seropositive women were evaluated by real-time quantitative HSV DNA PCR.
RESULTS:
HSV-2 seroprevalence was 71% and 30% among 75 HIV-positive and 3051 HIV-negative women, respectively, (P < .001). HSV was detected at delivery in the genital tract of 30.8% of HIV-seropositive versus 9.5% of HIV-negative women (RR = 3.2, 95% CI 1.6 to 6.5, P = .001). The number of virion copies shed per mL was similar (log 3.54 for HIV positive versus 3.90 for HIV negative, P = .99).
CONCLUSIONS:
Our study demonstrated that HIV-, HSV-2-coinfected women are more likely to shed HSV at delivery.