Micronutrients and adverse pregnancy outcomes in the context of HIV infection

Wafaie Fawzi1, Gernard Msamanga

  • 1Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115, USA.

Nutrition Reviews
|September 24, 2004
PubMed

HIV infection is a global public health problem, particularly in Africa. Concurrently, micronutrient deficiencies and adverse pregnancy outcomes are prevalent in the same settings. Supplements containing B complex and vitamins C and E were efficacious in reducing adverse pregnancy outcomes, including fetal loss, low birth weight, and prematurity among HIV-infected women; the generalizability of this finding to uninfected women is being examined. There is little encouragement from published studies to provide prenatal vitamin A supplements in HIV infection, particularly in light of significantly higher risk of mother-to-child transmission observed in one trial. The efficacy and safety of prenatal zinc and selenium supplements on these outcomes need to be examined in randomized trials.

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