Introduction: Replication of the human immunodeficiency virus involves an obligatory step of reverse transcription of the viral ribonucleic acid genome into a double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid, and subsequent integration of the deoxyribonucleic acid into the human chromatin to form the proviral deoxyribonucleic acid. This proviral human immunodeficiency virus deoxyribonucleic acid is a critical marker for the diagnosis of acute infections, mother-to-child transmissions and for the confirmation of indeterminate serological reactions. We describe a case of a human immunodeficiency virus positive woman, naïve to antiretroviral treatment, who was persistently negative for human immunodeficiency virus proviral deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase chain reaction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) from HBV-positive mothers to their infants is common and usually occurs when the mother is hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive and/or has a high HBV DNA load. In this study, we determined the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and HBeAg among pregnant women with known HIV status.
Findings: A total of 650 pregnant women with a mean age of 26.