The purpose of this grant is to study Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection in pregnancy. The prevalence of seropositivity to the virus will be determined in all pregnant and high risk non-pregnant women at Jackson Memorial Hospital. The impact of pregnancy with its physiologic altered immune status on the natural history of superimposed HIV infection will be prospectively compared with non-pregnant infected women to determine whether pregnancy alters the course of infection. Whether the altered immune status of HIV infection affects genitourinary infections in pregnancy will be assessed by studying both infected and non-infected pregnant and non-pregnant women. The rate of prenatal transmission (the most common cause of AIDS in children) will be prospectively determined in the study group. We feel strongly that the increasing incidence of heterosexual transmission of HIV infection will have a significant impact on women, especially in pregnancy. This study will contribute towards determining how pregnancy affects HIV infection, and how HIV infection impacts on other more common infections in pregnancy.
