Mortality in HIV-1-seropositive women, their spouses and their newly born children during 36 months of follow-up in Kinshasa, Zaïre.

Objective: To calculate 3-year mortality rates in HIV-1-seropositive and HIV-1-seronegative mothers, their newborn children and the fathers of these children.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study of HIV-1-seropositive, age and parity-matched HIV-1-seronegative pregnant women, their newborn babies and the fathers of these children.

Setting: Obstetric ward and follow-up clinic at a large municipal hospital in Kinshasa, Zaïre.

Fertility rates in 238 HIV-1-seropositive women in Zaire followed for 3 years post-partum.

Birth-control use and fertility rates were prospectively determined in 238 HIV-1-seropositive and 315 HIV-1-seronegative women in Kinshasa, Zaire, during the 36-month period following the delivery of their last live-born child. No women delivered children during the first follow-up year. Birth-control utilization rates (percentage use during total observation time) and fertility rates (annual number of live births per 1000 women of child-bearing age) in the second year of follow-up were 19% (107.