Maternal-infant HIV transmission and circumstances of delivery.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES. Circumstances of delivery among children with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were investigated to assess whether they were consistent with predictions that intrapartum factors affect the risk of maternal-infant human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission. METHODS. Pediatric AIDS patients (maternal-infant transmission; n = 632) reported to the New York City Health Department through 1991 were compared with a series of infants born to predominantly uninfected women. For each case patient, five control subjects were selected and matched from birth certificate files. Hypothesized case-control comparisons for mode of delivery and preselected complications were tested. RESULTS. Compared with control subjects, case patients were less likely to have been delivered by cesarean section without complications (odds ratio [OR] = 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.59, 1.01) and more likely to have been delivered with complications, whether delivery was by cesarean section (OR = 1.54; 95% CI = 0.98, 2.43) or vaginal (OR = 1.66; 95% CI = 1.15, 2.39). CONCLUSIONS. Assuming that HIV-infected and uninfected women have comparable circumstances of delivery, conditional on sociomedical characteristics, these results suggest that intrapartum events may be associated with maternal-infant HIV transmission.