Botswana Beat Cohort Study and the Safety of Dolutegravir in Pregnancy

Segment Description: Ava Avalos, MD, director of the Careena Centre for Health in Botswana, details the effects of a dolutegravir-based regimen on pregnancy.

Interview transcript (modified slightly for readability):

Contagion®: Safety of ART in pregnancy is a big focus in HIV care. Your study reported no neural tube defects in the 77 deliveries included. Can you expand a little more on that?

Dr. Avalos: "Well we look at all clinical outcomes, including tuberculosis, pregnancy, and opportunistic infections, and so we had 77 women in that cohort of over 2000 patients that were pregnant in the first year and 11 of those had [dolutegravir] exposure preconception and all of them had good outcomes from pregnancy; there were no neural tube defects. And it really does seem like the neural tube defect in general in Botswana is fading, but we'll know when the study ends in April."