PURPOSE: to evaluate the prevalence of HIV infection in parturient women from maternity hospitals linked to the Public Health Service in Sergipe state (Brazil) using the rapid test, and to evaluate this strategy to introduce the protocol for adequate management of HIV patients. METHODS: cross-sectional study which included the training of all health personnel and enrollment of every parturient woman admitted to maternity hospitals linked to the Public Health Service of Sergipe in the Northeast of Brazil. They received instructions about HIV perinatal transmission, were asked to undertake the rapid test, independently of their knowledge about their HIV serologic status, and signed the term of free consent. Additional information about antenatal care and obstetric history was obtained. The test used was the DetermineTM - Abbott Laboratories, and we used the Health Ministry protocol for HIV infeccion prophylaxis. A database was created at Epi-Info 2002, and the prevalence was calculated in relation to all tests performed from January 2003 to March 2004. RESULTS: after 9215 performed tests, 39 HIV-seropositive patients (0.42%) were detected. Twenty-three of them (59%) had no previous knowledge about their seropositivity. Two patients that already knew their positive sorology status did not refer this condition to the health persomel. The Health Ministry protocol was used for all positive cases. Antenatal care attendance was high (89%) but only 32.5% of the patients had already been submitted to an HIV serologic test during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: HIV prevalence in pregnant women (0.42%) in Sergipe was similar to the average rate in Brazil. A large number of seropositive pregnant women did not know their serologic status at the moment of delivery. This indicates bad antenatal care performance and the necessity to keep using HIV rapid test at the moment of labor and delivery in order to reduce vertical transmission.
Infection in pregnancy; HIV rapid test; Vertical transmission; AIDS
