risk factors impacting on the spread of hiv among pregnant women ...

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The range of drugs used after HIV diagnosis did not change significantly: heroin was still the predominant
drug (84.6%), with injected cocaine (30.8%) and soporifics (15.4%) also occasionally
used. However, the use of medical opiates dropped from 27.3 to 7.7%, which mainly reflects
changes in supply in the drug market.
On the whole, the characteristics of drug injection in the Kaliningrad sub-sample did not change.
53.8% injected drugs approximately once a week, with only 40% never using other persons’ equipment
after HIV diagnosis, and the others doing so in half or most cases. Half the women cleaned
other persons’ needles and syringes before use – 25% always and 25% in most cases. Only 15.4%
injecting drugs always used “clean” equipment, while 38.5% passed their used needles and syringes
to other persons at least occasionally. Only 7.7% did not have opportunity to buy “clean” injection
equipment. Only 46.2% never filled their syringe from that of another person, while 38.5% never
drew up from a common container.
Approximately every third woman perceived her injection behavioural patterns after HIV diagnosis
as unsafe rather than safe (15.4%) or as very unsafe (15.4%). Hepatitis in this sub-sample was diagnosed
twice as often after the diagnosis of HIV had been made (69.2% for hepatitis С and 76.9% for
hepatitis В, nearly twice the level found in the general sample).
2.2.3.3. REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOUR AND PREVENTION OF MOTHER-TO-CHILD HIV TRANSMISSION
Most interviewees in the Kaliningrad sub-sample (85.3%) at the time of HIV diagnosis were pregnant,
with pregnancies being unplanned in 59.4% of cases. Termination was more typical in this subsample
than in the general sample of the five cities: 50% had abortions. 32.8% of pregnancies ended
in childbirth. 14.1% of the women were pregnant at the time of the survey. In isolated cases pregnancy
ended in miscarriage.
About 65% of women received medication to prevent MTCT during pregnancy at the time of the
diagnosis, 51.7% of women after delivery. Only 15% did not receive medication while pregnant or
during/after delivery.
15.6% of the women interviewed had become pregnant after their diagnosis of HIV had been made.
In 71.4% the pregnancy was unplanned, which is an indicator of unsafe sexual practices in terms of
infection/re-infection. In nearly 23.8% of these women pregnancy was in progress at the time of the
survey.
66.7% of the women received ART during pregnancy after HIV diagnosis.
2.3. YEKATERINBURG
2.3.1. HIV EPIDEMIC
RISK FACTORS IMPACTING ON THE SPREAD OF HIV AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
In Sverdlovsk region the HIV epidemic is considered very serious. On 1 January 2006 there were
26,364 HIV cases registered in the region, 10,685 of them in Yekaterinburg, the administrative cen-