Safety and Tolerance of Zidovudine Treatment in Late Pregnancy among HIV-1 Infected Parturients in Ramathibodi Hospital

Abstract

Objective To evaluate safety and tolerance of asymptomatic HIV-1 positive parturients
who treated with zidovudine in late pregnancy.
Design Prospective descriptive study.
Setting Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Department of Paediatrics,
Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi hospital, Mahidol University.
Subjects Thirty-five cases of HIV-1 positive pregnant women who attended antenatal
care between January 1995 and June 1996.
Results The mean. age of study group was 25.8 t 4.6 years. Most of them were
primigravida and lived in Bangkok. The mean duration of zidovudine intake was
24.6 t 9.5 days with complete treatmenl91.4%. Only 20% of them had side effects
and most common was nausea and vomiting. The mean birthweight of newborns
was 3,004.0 ! 297.4 grams and no asphyxia was observed. Most of them were
delivered by normal delivery. No adverse effect and postpartum morbidity were
demonstrated. No HIV-1 genome which was performed by PCR technique was
detected in peripheral blood of newborns. Conclusion Zidovudine treatment in late pregnancy is safe and tolerant. lt could be
applicable in a clinical setting of developing countries. However, the efficacy of
this regimen should be further studied.