[Social and clinical characteristics of a group of mothers infected with HIV in Valencia: influence of parenteral drug addiction].
OBJECTIVE
In the first years after the finding of HIV-infection, the main was for its transmission among western women was the intravenous drug addiction. The objective of our work consisted in evaluating the main social and clinical characteristics of a group of seropositive mothers, and in analyzing their potential relationship with intravenous consumption of drugs.


METHODS
We performed an observational prospective study in 220 HIV-infected women who had recently given birth to children with high risk for infection. We included every women at an HIV Unit of a hospital in Valencia who had been diagnosed of HIV infection at any moment between the first mother-child transmission reported in 1985 and 1993. The analysis was based on univariate analysis.


RESULTS
The virus transmission was produced by heterosexual relations in a 27.7% of the study women and due to the parenteral drug addiction in 69.1%. We detected more women who had an abortion, with criminal antecedents and parental abandonment among those who were intravenous drug users (IVDU), with OR of 1.8 (p = 0.087), 8.95 (p = 0.012) and 15 (p = 0.000), when compared with those mothers non-IVDU. Besides, IVDU presented a higher probability for getting hepatitis B or C infection and for other toxic habits, as smoking (OR = 6.19, p = 0.000) or alcoholism (OR = 5.91, p = 0.017).


CONCLUSIONS
Many of the analysed characteristics in these women were more related with the consumption of injected drug than with the HIV infection, such as the greater frequency of elective abortions, criminal antecedents, parental abandonment, multiple drug abuse and pathological precedents like hepatitis B or C.
Sanz Aliaga
S A
SA
Area de Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, Universidad de Valencia.
Sabater Pons
A
A
Alfonso Sánchez
J L
JL
Carbajal de Lara
J A
JA
Sancho Izquierdo
E
E
D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000635:transmission; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000453:epidemiology; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010298:Parity; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*