A team from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa compared 212 HIV positive mothers-to-be with 101 women who had tested negative.

"Latest statistics suggest that more than a quarter of pregnant women in South Africa are HIV positive and that global rates are continuing to rise" says lead researcher Dr Candice Bodkin.

"It has already been established that HIV and AIDS can exaggerate some of the problems normally experienced in pregnancy. But we believe that this is the first study to link being HIV positive and pregnant with higher levels of anaemia and raised blood pressure."

The researchers identified a number of key health issues facing HIV positive pregnant women, including:

• A significantly higher risk of developing anaemia compared with women who were HIV negative. This can lead to lower tolerance to severe bleeding after birth, one of the most common causes of maternal death.
• An increased risk of developing pregnancy-induced hypertension compared with HIV negative women (17 versus 10 per cent), but no greater risk of developing eclampsia, a potentially life-threatening condition characterised by high blood pressure, swelling and protein in the urine.
• Lower maternal weight, with HIV positive women weighing six per cent less (just under five kilograms) than women who tested negative a possible indication that HIV was progressing to the early stages of AIDS in the women studied.
• Double the risk of a urinary tract infection (16 per cent versus eight per cent) a five-fold increase in syphilis (six per cent versus one per cent) and a higher level of abnormal vaginal discharge (33 per cent versus 25 per cent).
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