KAIS 2007 1 - Kenya National AIDS & STI Control Programme ...

Among currently pregnant women, 7.1% were co‐infected with HIV and HSV‐2, 1.8% were infectedwith HIV only, 32.9% were infected with HSV‐2 only and 58.2% were not infected with either HSV‐2or HIV.HSV‐2 prevalence was significantly higher (2.2 times) among HIV‐infected pregnant womencompared to pregnant women with no HIV infection (80.1% vs. 36.1%, respectively). These estimateswere similar to the 2007 KAIS findings for HSV‐2 in the general population, which are discussed inChapter 12. Among all women aged 15‐49 years, HSV‐2 prevalence was 39.8% and HSV‐2 prevalencewas 2.4 times higher among HIV‐infected women compared to HIV‐infected women (84.1% vs. 35.5%,respectively) (data not shown).Figure 8.9b HIV and syphilis among currently pregnant women aged 15-49 years, Kenya2007.HIV only8.9%Syphilis only1.6%Neither HIV norSyphilis89.5%Figure 8.9b Among currently pregnant women, 1.6% were seropositive for syphilis; noneof these women were co-infected with HIV.Syphilis is most transmissible in the primary and secondary stages, but pregnant women can transmitthe infection to fetuses at any point in the course of their disease, causing congenital syphilis.Among women currently pregnant at the time of KAIS, 1.6% were seropositive for syphilis. Thisestimate matches the overall prevalence of syphilis seropositivity found in the 2007 KAIS for thegeneral population (1.8%) and among all women aged 15‐49 years (1.6%). The 2007 KAIS findings forsyphilis infection in the general population, which are presented in Chapter 13, suggest a strongcorrelation between HIV and syphilis seropositivity; however, no pregnant women were found to beseropositive for both HIV and syphilis in the 2007 KAIS. This may be due to the small number ofpregnant respondents infected with syphilis.KAIS 2007 153