ABSTRACT
All pregnant women are recommended screening for HIV infection before or early in pregnancy. If a woman declines or if she is at high risk screening should be offered again around 28 weeks. An assessment of newly diagnosed HIV positive women during pregnancy includes evaluation of their social circumstances and disclosure of HIV status to their partner. A multidisciplinary team including an HIV physician, obstetrician and paediatrician should plan interventions to prevent mother to child transmission. Combined antiretroviral therapy is continued if the woman had started before pregnancy or started preferably after 12 weeks of pregnancy and viral load and CD 4 count is tested every four to six weeks. The aim of therapy should be to achieve an undetectable viral load at time of delivery. The consequences of
1University Women’s Hospital, Spitalstrasse 21, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland; Email: kaebi@uhbs.ch, mail@aebi-popp.com 2University Children’s Hospital, Spitalstrasse 33, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland; Email: christoph.rudin@unibas.ch 3Division of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital, CH-4031 Basel; Email: elzil@uhbs.ch *Corresponding author List of abbreviations after the text.
