Effect of maternal hiv immune reconstitution inflammatory response syndrome on the risk of adverse pregnancy-fetal outcomes in hiv-1 positive, art naive pregnant women of reproductive age in selected hospitals, nairobi, kenya

Background: Immune reconstitution inflammatory response syndrome (IRIS) is a recovery disease that may be triggered after starting ARV therapy in some individuals. The incidence of adverse pregnancy-fetal outcomes with IRIS has not been studied in Kenya among pregnant women, with focus only, on improved immune response and PMTCT after ART initiation. The indirect effect of ART, the maternal HIV - IRIS on pregnancy outcome has not been elucidated. More than 10% of the global burden of disease is due to pregnancy complications and adverse pregnancy and related birth outcomes and despite recent advances in obstetric medicine, pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes are a growing public health concern and economic burden on the health-care system. This has substantial burden of adverse pregnancy-fetal outcomes with prevalence of preterm birth, low birth weight, and small gestational age infants of 19.8%, 14.2%, and 12.6%, respectively, and of still birth and neonatal mortalityat1.9% and 0.4%, respectively. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of maternal HIV immune reconstitution inflammatory response syndrome on the risk of adverse pregnancy-fetal outcomes in HIV-1 positive; ART initiated pregnant women of reproductive age in selected hospitals, Nairobi, Kenya. Methodology: The study was conducted among 204 HIV-1 positive, ART initiated pregnant women of reproductive age in selected hospitals, Nairobi, Kenya. A prospective cohort study design was used where the subjects were recruited and followed from the end of first trimester for six and half months after they were confirmed to be HIV positive, and put on ARV treatment using a pretested data collection tool. Bivariate analyses with chi-square test to establish the association between the variables at p-value Article visualizations: