Search

There were 5503 deliveries between 1989 and 1991 in the Guy de Lorier Maternity Unit (Pr Salat-Baroux) of Tenon Hospital, Paris. These included 81 women testing HIV+ in the department with 33 asymptomatic black African women among 781 deliveries. Africans account for 14% of women delivered in the department but for 40% of seropositives in the unit, with a predilection for women from Zaïre (central Africa), accounting for 17 seropositives. They only represent 50% of all cases of African HIV+ and 20% of the unit, while they account for only 6% of the black African community and 0.8% of the maternity unit. Women from west Africa accounted for 45.5% of African seropositive cases, with Ivory Coast in first place with 24.3% while only 9% of women from Mali, accounting for 40% of African patients and 5% the units, tested positive (3 cases out of 309 patients). The mean age of seropositive patients was 23 +/- 4, pregnancies proceeded normally and there were 4 therapeutic abortions. There were 9 births by cesarean section, with no evidence of neonatal contamination, the same applying in the other 20 vaginal deliveries. Routine testing (informed consent) for HIV in these high-risk (endemic zone, drug addiction) or unrecognised seropositive patients is important whenever the opportunity presents itself (prenuptial examinations, prenatal visits, family planning, preoperative assessment) in order to attempt to lower infection rates and ensure the best possible care for mother and child when there is a wish to continue the pregnancy, but also to protect hospital staff from the risks to which they may be exposed.