Practising obstetrics and gynaecology in areas with a high prevalence of HIV infection

What is it like to practise obstetrics and gynaecology in a country with a high prevalence of HIV infection? My experience relates especially to Zimbabwe, but the same factors apply equally well to Zambia, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique. Within a population of 11 million in Zimbabwe, at least 1 million are HIV positive according to the official figures. AIDS often means "home-based care"; the nearest clinic or hospital, which has very little to offer, may be 3 hours away by wheelbarrow. Many patients who die with chronic diarrhoea lack a piped water supply nearby, an indoor toilet, or even a waterproof sheet. Every year in Zimbabwe there are 120 000 confinements of HIV-positive women compared with 7000 HIV-positive pregnancies in the USA.1 Transmission of the virus in Africa is mainly heterosexual and vertical, although blood transfusion still plays a part. Intravenous drug use is not a problem but alcohol is, by way of promoting risky behaviour. A secondary epidemic of tuberculosis (TB) (also among HIV-negative persons) adds to the difficulties in sub-Saharan Africa.