Sponsor
Lynn Matthews received funding for this project through a K23 award (NIMH 095655), the Harvard University CFAR (P30 AI060354), Harvard Global Health Institute, and the BurroughsWellcome-American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Postdoctoral Fellowship in Tropical Infectious Diseases. David Bangsberg and Steven Safren are supported by K24 awards (NIMH 87227 and 094214). Christina Psaros is supported by a K23 award (NIMH 096651).
Published In
BMC Public Health
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2014
Subjects
HIV-positive persons -- Sexual behavior, Men -- Sexual behavior, HIV infections -- Risk factors, AIDS (Disease) -- Social aspects, HIV infections -- Reporting, AIDS (Disease) in pregnancy
Physical Description
6 pages
Abstract
Background: Implementation of safer conception strategies requires knowledge of partner HIV-serostatus. We recruited women and men in a high HIV-prevalence setting for a study to assess periconception risk behavior among individuals reporting HIV-serodiscordant partnerships. We report screening data from that study with the objective of estimating the proportion of individuals who are aware that they are in an HIV-serodiscordant relationship at the time of conception.
Methods: We screened women and men attending antenatal and antiretroviral clinics in Durban, South Africa for enrollment in a study of periconception risk behavior among individuals with serodiscordant partners. Screening questionnaires assessed for study eligibility including age 18–45 years (for women) or at least 18 years of age (for men), pregnancy in past year (women) or partner pregnancy in the past 3 years (men), HIV status of partner for recent pregnancy, participant’s HIV status, and infected partner’s HIV status having been known before the referent pregnancy.
Results: Among 2620 women screened, 2344 (90%) met age and pregnancy criteria and knew who fathered the referent pregnancy. Among those women, 963 (41%) did not know the pregnancy partner’s HIV serostatus at time of screening. Only 92 (4%) reported knowing of a serodiscordant partnership prior to pregnancy. Among 1166 men screened, 225 (19%) met age and pregnancy criteria. Among those men, 71 (32%) did not know the pregnancy partner’s HIV status and only 30 (13%) reported knowing of a serodiscordant partnership prior to pregnancy.
Conclusions: In an HIV-endemic setting, awareness of partner HIV serostatus is rare. Innovative strategies to increase HIV testing and disclosure are required to facilitate HIV prevention interventions for serodiscordant couples.
DOI
10.1186/1471-2458-14-843
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/18539
Publisher
BioMed Central
Citation Details
54. Matthews LT, Moore L, Crankshaw TL, Milford C, Mosery FN, Greener R, Psaros C, Safren SA, Bangsberg DR, Smit JA. South Africans with recent pregnancy rarely know partner's HIV serostatus: implications for serodiscordant couples interventions. BMC Public Health. 2014 Aug 14;14(1):843. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-843. PubMed PMID: 25124267
Description
At the time of writing, David Bangsberg was affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital.
© 2014 Matthews et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.