Characteristics of HIV positive recently pregnant women aged 15-49 years South Africa 2017: fact sheet

Abstract

The dominant themes emerging from our analyses of recently pregnant women are social and structural issues; sexual risk behaviours pertaining to condom use; engaging in early sexual debut; having multiple partners; and having age disparate sexual relationships' particularly for recently pregnant AGYW aged 15-24 years. The lack of or inconsistent use of condoms, engaging in early sexual debut, and having multiple sexual partners are well-documented risk behaviours associated with HIV acquisition. In addition, STIs among recently pregnant HIV-positive older women warrant attention. The high proportion of recently pregnant women who had also recently tested for HIV suggests that the HIV testing strategies within the PMTCT programmes have been successful, but some gaps still exist.