Gestação, HIV e COVID-19: desafios na assistência ao pré-natal

Abstract

Pregnancy is a phase of many expectations and uncertainties for most women. The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has multiplied doubts and anxieties, with the postponement and/or withdrawal of consultations and prenatal exams, and the social distancing measures adopted to contain the spread of the disease. This is an exploratory quantitative research with a descriptive character, using data collection and interviews. The main purpose of the descriptive study is to describe the characteristics of a given population or phenomenon, or to establish relationships between variables. The place where the research was carried out was the Hospital Dia - Infectologia (HD) of the Hospital Universitário Professor Alberto Antunes (HUPAA), located in Maceió, Alagoas, from July 2021 to July 2022. The sample consisted of 19 pregnant women diagnosed with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Most of the pregnant women interviewed were married, brown and had completed high school. As for occupation, they were housewives, day laborers, students, and doorwoman. Regarding their income, the vast majority received up to 1 minimum wage, including those who where benefited by some type of social welfare program. When asked about the challenges faced in prenatal follow-up during the Covid-19 pandemic, most claimed not to have encountered challenges, while others pointed out difficulties in scheduling appointments, performing tests, getting results from exams due to isolation, obtaining the necessary transportation due to the distance of the infectology unit (CTA-HU) and difficulty in scheduling appointments at the basic health unit. During the Covid-19 pandemic, most pregnant women with HIV monitored by the Hospital Dia do HUPAA stated that they had not encountered major challenges regarding access to prenatal care and treatment for HIV, since the service reorganized the assistance so that HIV medication could be distributed in greater quantities and at larger intervals, reducing the need for travel and exposure and the risks of poor adherence to the treatment due to lack of medication.