According to a first-ever study, presented at the 2010 International Microbicides Conference (M2010), a man's possibility of becoming contaminated with HIV twofolds when his HIV-tainted spouse becomes pregnant.

The M2010 was arranged and backed partially by the University of Pittsburgh.

It has been known since long that women are at higher risk of becoming tainted with HIV at around the time of pregnancy.

Part of the cause is behavioral, not using any kind of precautions for sex practices in order to conceive.

Another reason is that the woman's immune system downregulates in strength to house the partly foreign fetus.

However, nobody had in fact looked at men before, said Lead Author, Nelly Mugo, MD, of the University of Nairobi and the Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya.

The researchers looked at 3321 serodiscordant couples and followed up for as long as 2 years at 14 locations in 7 nations in southern and eastern Africa.

The serodiscordant couples comprised of 1085 in which the man was tainted and 2236 in which the woman was contaminated. The couples were aware that their serostatus was recurrently advised on safer sex behavior.

The canvassers looked at pregnancies in 320 pairs in which the man tested positive for HIV-1, and 503 couples in which the woman tested positive for HIV-1.