Abstract:

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of opportunistic Infections (OIs) and associated pregnancy complication among HIV Positive women giving birth in hospitals of Dar es salaam, Tanzania.

Design: The cross sectional study design using OIs checklist was used to collect data among 105 participants. The Epi Data software was used for data entry. The complete data set was later transferred to SAS version 9.4 for data analysis and interpretations. The associations of categorical variables were determined by the Chi- squire test, in which, p-values <0.05 were considered as significant association.

Result. Among 105 participants, 63(60%) of them were diagnosed with OIs, while 42(40%) did not show any symptoms of OIs. The most common OIs symptoms reported were; frequently fatigue 46(43.8%), Persistent profuse night sweats 43(40.9%), Persistent muscle aches 41(39%), and unexplained recurring fever 39(37.1%). Participants with recurrent memory loss, depression and neurological disorders had more 5(20.8%) babies born with body weight below 2500g, underweight baby, compared to 5(6.1%) women without these symptoms, P- Value <0.0316. Participants without recurrent severe pneumonia, 24(35.2%), which is among the late HIV stage OIs (WHO clinical stage 3 &4) are slightly protected to developed vaginal tears during birth compared to those 7 (18.9%) with recurrent severe pneumonia. P- Value <0.0693.

Conclusion. In conclusion, the majority of HIV infected pregnant women giving birth suffer from OIs. Recurrent memory loss, depression and neurological disorders and recurrent severe pneumonia are risk factors for pregnancy complication

Keywords: HIV infected pregnant women, Opportunistic infection, pregnancy complication underweight baby, neurological disorders, vaginal tear, ARV.

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