Geographic and temporal stability of HIV seroprevalence among pregnant women in Bujumbura Burundi.

The authors compared HIV seroprevalence data among pregnant women from 1986 with comparable data from 1991-92 to establish whether HIV seroprevalence in Bujumbura is stable or continuing to increase. They found HIV seroprevalence among antenatal clinic attendees at 3 sites to be 10.5% 28.9% and 11.9% in 1986 compared with 7.7% 25.6% and 12.4% respectively in 1991-92. Significant differences were found between the different sites in HIV seroprevalence but not between the 1986 and 1991-92 prevalence levels. HIV therefore appears to be endemic in Bujumbura. The stable geographic variation among clinic populations suggests the need for and appropriateness of focused interventions as well as a general need for surveillance data to be gathered from numerous sites in order to identify those with the highest incidence of HIV infection.