The INFO Project Blog

This article caught our attention at INFO. It’s good news in that HIV-positive women who become pregnant may be able to worry a little less about their health, but potentially worrisome news for women in developing countries who don’t have access to ARVs and may think that getting pregnant will help their own health.

From The Voice of America: “We found that the women who became pregnant during the study period had a lower risk of progressing to AIDS-defining events or death than the women who did not become pregnant. This was an observational study just looking at 759 women who were seen at some point during the study period, which was between January 1997 and December 2004…We know that the women who became pregnant were healthier than the women who did not. In other words, they had a higher CD-4 (immune system cells) count, a lower viral load.”

Click here for the full article.

The authors believe the results show the pregnant women’s immune systems were working better. Do you agree?

For more information on managing reproductive health risks of HIV-positive women who are pregnant or wish to become pregnant, see the latest issue of Population Reports.