CHARACTERISTICS OF PREGNANT HIV-1-INFECTED WOMEN IN EUROPE

There is a growing number of infected women in Europe and an increasin g proportion of these have acquired their infection through heterosexu al contact. Most infected women are of childbearing age and thus incre asing numbers of children are at risk of acquiring infection. In this paper we examine the socio-demographic characteristics and trends in m ode of acquisition of infection of 1690 infected women from 7 countrie s enrolled in the European Collaborative Study, a prospective multi-ce ntre study of children born to women known to be HIV infected at or be fore the time of delivery. The majority of women were white, primipara e, married or cohabiting and born in Europe. Two-thirds had a history of injecting drug use (IDU), most commonly involving heroin. Although patterns of transmission varied by centre, there was a relative increa se in heterosexual transmission over the study period. A history of ne edle-sharing among IDUs was common, but needle-sharing during pregnanc y significantly declined between 1987 and 1994.