December 1st is World AIDS Day

Maternal death is not often a health issue connected with HIV/AIDS, but this study shows that in one Mozambique hospital AIDS-related infections accounted for more maternal deaths than the traditional big five causes. Maternal risk is not included in the current World AIDS Day Thematic Campaigns.

PLoS Medicine - An Autopsy Study of Maternal Mortality in Mozambique: The Contribution of Infectious Diseases:

"Between October 2002 and December 2004, there were 179 maternal deaths in the Maputo Central Hospital and 31,135 live births, corresponding to a ratio of 874 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. (Because the hospital was a referral center, this ratio would not be expected to reflect the actual MMR for the general population of the Maputo area.) Complete autopsies were done on 139 of the women, HIV infection was measured using standard tests, and malaria was diagnosed by looking for parasites and malaria-associated changes in postmortem samples. Of these 139 women, just over one-third died because of obstetric complications; hemorrhage was the most common cause of death (one in six maternal deaths). The commonest nonobstetric causes of maternal death were HIV/AIDS- related conditions, including infections and cancers (about 1 in 8 maternal deaths; about half the women in the study were HIV positive). Other common causes were pyogenic (pus-forming) bacterial infections of the lungs and brain, and malaria. Together, these infectious diseases accounted for nearly half of the maternal deaths."