Originally posted on DrexelNow.

Pregnancy could be a turning point for HIV-infected women, when they have the opportunity to manage their infection, prevent transmission to their new baby and enter a long-term pattern of maintenance of HIV care after giving birth—but most HIV-infected women aren’t getting that chance. That is the major message from a pair of new studies in Philadelphia, one published early online this month in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, and the other published in July in PLOS ONE.

The studies, led by a team of researchers from Drexel University and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH), are the first to describe the HIV care continuum postpartum and the first to use population-based data to evaluate viral suppression rates of HIV-infected pregnant women at delivery. Both studies were based on the review of medical records of all HIV-infected women delivering babies in Philadelphia over several years (2005-2011 and 2005-2013, respectively). (more…)