Incident HIV infection and perinatal transmission rates among HIV negative pregnant women who retested in labor in a tertiary health centre, South East Nigeria.

Background: To reduce the number of new HIV infections among children, retesting of HIV negative pregnant women in labor to identify new infections and instituting appropriate modified obstetrics practices (MOP) has a huge role to play.

Aims and objectives: This study evaluated the HIV sero-positivity in labor among pregnant women who earlier tested negative in antenatal clinic, associated risk factors and the corresponding rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection.

Methods: This was a prospective observational study where pregnant women in labor who had earlier tested HIV negative in the antenatal clinic at Imo State University Teaching Hospital Orlu, Imo state, Nigeria, were retested. The infants of the women who seroconverted were tested for HIV infection at 6 weeks using Deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase chain reaction (DNA PCR) by collecting Dried Blood Sample. This study was conducted from October 2015 to March 2016.

Result: Out of the 163 patients studied, 6 demonstrated HIV seroconversion giving a seroconversion rate of 3.7%. Deliveries from the seroconverted patients were 5 live births and 1 intrauterine fetal death. All the 5 live babies tested HIV negative at 6 weeks of age. Predictors of seroconversion in late pregnancy include spouse's HIV status and number of other sexual partners.

Conclusion: Retesting of HIV negative pregnant women in labor to identify new infections and instituting appropriate modified obstetrics practices has a huge role to play in the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV infection.