Estimated number of infants born to HIV-infected women in the United States and five dependent areas, 2006.

OBJECTIVE

Although perinatal HIV infections are declining in the United States, there is no single source of nationally representative data available to estimate the number of infants born to HIV-infected women in the United States and its dependencies. This study determines the total number of births to HIV-positive women in the United States and 5 dependent areas in 2006.

STUDY DESIGN

Diagnosed stage 1 or 2 HIV disease in the United States were based on reported data from 39 areas that conducted confidential name-based HIV case reporting and stage 3 HIV from all areas in the United States. A zero-inflated Poisson model was used to estimate the number of women aged 13-44 years living with diagnosed stage 1 or 2 HIV disease in the United States. The number of undiagnosed HIV-infected women (stage 1 or 2) of childbearing age was estimated from the number of reported Stage 3 HIV (ie, AIDS) cases using a back-calculation method.

RESULTS

An estimated 115,200 women aged 13-44 years were living with stage 1 or 2 HIV disease in 2006. A total of 56,200 women were living with diagnosed stage 3 disease. The estimated number of births to all women living with HIV disease (diagnosed or undiagnosed) was 8700 [95% Confidence Interval (CI): 8400 to 8800] in 2006.

CONCLUSIONS

The number of infants born to HIV-infected women in 2006 was approximately 30% greater than the number of such births (6075-6422) in 2000. This increase highlights the need to continue and strengthen efforts to prevent perinatal HIV transmission in the United States.