[The socioeconomic consequences of HIV infection in women and children].
The impact of AIDS is expected to shift dramatically towards women and children during the next decade. By the year 2000, millions of women and children in Africa will have AIDS or be orphan. In Europe and America, HIV infection is also spreading most rapidly among these populations. In the Paris hospitals, 0.9% of pregnant women were HIV infected in 1989. Women in the HIV seropositive population are predominantly young, unmarried, smoke, are foreign-born or have used drugs. In France, there is a clear trend towards infection of pregnant women through heterosexual transmission, 24.7% in 1987 to 41.8% in 1989. Women are increasingly choosing to continue pregnancy despite counseling on the risk of HIV transmission to the fetus. Today, over 50% of infected women in Paris continue pregnancy. In the developed countries, 20 to 25% of the infant of HIV seropositive mothers are infected perinatally and 60% die within the first 5 years. The outlook for many of the uninfected children is also quite break. They may be abandoned or orphaned and/or maintained in various institutions. Medical care for infected children is more expensive than for mothers. The cost of HIV infection includes not only diagnosis and treatment but the social cost as well. In maternities, the strain on personnel and facilities can be considerable. Services attending a high proportion of seropositive women and children must be reorganized. Screening, which is accepted by nearly all pregnant women, must be emphasized. Further emphasis must be placed on the prevention of heterosexual transmission.
Henrion
R
R
Clinique universitaire Port-Royal, Paris.
Mandelbrot
L
L
D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000191:economics; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000191:economics* / Q000523:psychology; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000191:economics; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
Conséquences socio-économiques de l'infection à VIH chez la femme et l'enfant.