Five-year trends in epidemiology and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, St. Petersburg, Russia: results from perinatal HIV surveillance.

BACKGROUND: The HIV epidemic in Russia has increasingly involved reproductive-aged women, which may increase perinatal HIV transmission. METHODS: Standard HIV case-reporting and enhanced perinatal HIV surveillance systems were used for prospective assessment of HIV-infected women giving birth in St. Petersburg, Russia, during 2004-2008. Trends in social, perinatal, and clinical factors influencing mother-to-child HIV transmission stratified by history of injection drug use, and rates of perinatal HIV transmission were assessed using two-sided χ2 or Cochran-Armitage tests. RESULTS: Among HIV-infected women who gave birth, the proportion of women who self-reported ever using injection drugs (IDUs) decreased from 62% in 2004 to 41% in 2008 (P<0.0001). Programmatic improvements led to increased uptake of the following clinical services from 2004 to 2008 (all P<0.01): initiation of antiretroviral prophylaxis at ≤28 weeks gestation (IDUs 44%-54%, non-IDUs 45%-72%), monitoring of immunologic (IDUs 48%-64%, non-IDUs 58%-80%) and virologic status (IDUs 8%-58%, non-IDUs 10%-75%), dual/triple antiretroviral prophylaxis (IDUs 9%-44%, non-IDUs 14%-59%). After initial increase from 5.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.5%-7.8%) in 2004 to 8.5% (CI 6.1%-11.7%) in 2005 (P<0.05), perinatal HIV transmission decreased to 5.3% (CI 3.4%-8.3%) in 2006, and 3.2% (CI 1.7%-5.8%) in 2007 (P for trend<0.05). However, the proportion of women without prenatal care and without HIV testing before labor and delivery remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced proportion of IDUs and improved clinical services among HIV-infected women giving birth were accompanied by decreased perinatal HIV transmission, which can be further reduced by increasing outreach and HIV testing of women before and during pregnancy.

Rapid HIV testing and prevention of perinatal HIV transmission in high-risk maternity hospitals in St. Petersburg, Russia.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) rapid testing (RT) program. STUDY DESIGN: From April 13, 2004, to April 13, 2005, pregnant women at 2 high-risk maternity hospitals with no or incomplete HIV testing results (negative tests at <34 weeks, none thereafter) were offered point-of-care RT, with antiretroviral prophylaxis for RT-positive women and their infants. RESULTS: Overall, 89.2% of eligible women (3671/4117) underwent RT, of whom 90.4% received results before delivery. HIV seroprevalence among all women who underwent RT was 2.7% (100/3671 women); among previously untested women, seroprevalence was 6.5% (90/1375 women); the incidence of HIV seroconversion among women with previous negative tests during pregnancy was 0.4% (10/2296 women). After adjustment, the main predictor of receiving RT results after delivery was late admission. Among HIV-exposed infants, 97.9% (92/94) received prophylaxis; 61.7% (58/94) had available follow-up data, and 8.6% (5/58) met criteria for definitive or presumptive HIV infection. CONCLUSION: The RT program achieved timely detection of HIV-infected women in labor with unknown HIV status and effectively prevented perinatal HIV transmission.