RESEARCH ARTICLE


HIV Screening and Awareness Survey for Pregnant Women in a Remote Area in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China



Yuping Sun 1, Karlene Hewan-Lowe 2, Qiang Wu 3, Jiang Yu 4, Zhiqiu Guo 4, Yali Han 5, Yujiang Fan 6, Xianfang Qin 6, Ping Xu 7, Janati Bolatihan 7, Mayinuer Hoshaerbai 8, Luping Yuan 8, Heng Hong*, 2
1 Department of Microbiology, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumoqi, China
2 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA
3 Department of Biostatistics, College of Allied Health Sciences at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA
4 The Red Cross Society of Altay Prefecture, Altay, Xinjiang, China
5 The Red Cross Society of Jeminay County, Altay, Xinjiang, China
6 The Red Cross Society of Burqin County, Altay, Xinjiang, China
7 The Maternal and Child Care Service Centre of Jeminay County, Altay, Xinjiang, China
8 The Maternal and Child Care Service Centre of Burqin County, Altay, Xinjiang, China


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Creative Commons License
© Sun et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, NC 27858, USA; Tel: 252-744-5177; E-mail: iuhong@yahoo.com


Abstract

Objective:

The number of people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in China has increased in recent years. HIV screening for pregnant women was performed in a remote area in Xinjiang, as an effort to promote universal HIV screening in pregnant women and to help prevention of mother-to-child transmission.

Methods:

Pregnant women in Burqin and Jeminay Counties in Xinjiang were offered free voluntary HIV screening. Local mid-level medical workers were trained to use Determine® HIV-1/2 kit for HIV screening. All the tested pregnant women signed a consent form, received HIV education material, and participated in an HIV knowledge survey.

Results:

All the 890 pregnant women receiving HIV test had negative result. Among these women, 67.6% were Kazakh and 40.9% were farmers. Survey of HIV knowledge showed that these women's awareness about mother-to-child transmission was limited. The levels of HIV knowledge were related with ethnic background, age, education and profession of the pregnant women.

Conclusion:

The results suggested that HIV infection had not become a significant problem among the pregnant women in this remote area of Xinjiang, but continued efforts to improve the awareness of HIV, especially the knowledge about mother-to-child transmission of HIV, in pregnant women were needed.

Keywords: Universal HIV screen, pregnant women, mother-to-child transmission..