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Hemophiliacs are at considerable risk for harboring and transmitting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The National Hemophilia Foundation and the Public Health Service have recommended that hemophiliac men, who have tested positive for HIV or who have not been tested, refrain from unprotected sexual intercourse. It is also recommended that their partners not become pregnant until more is known about the transmission of the virus. Despite these warnings, there are many pregnancies among sex partners of hemophiliac men who are HIV-positive. In a study of 24 completed pregnancies, it was determined that 37.5 percent of the pregnant women learned of their partners' HIV-positivity and received counseling prior to the fifth month of pregnancy, when abortion was an option; at least nine women knew they were HIV-positive prior to their fifth month of pregnancy. Despite recommendations to the contrary, the pregnancies were carried to term; 37 percent of these pregnancies had been planned. Thirty percent of the children born were HIV-positive. Breast milk was considered an important source of HIV transmission. Three infants contracted pneumonia and two died. Two children had HIV-related symptoms of lymphadenopathy (lymph node disease) and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (abnormal decrease in blood platelets). These findings are thought to represent the minimal level of HIV transmission, since they were based solely on clinical symptoms; there is increasing evidence that infected children, unlike infected adults, may test negative. This study demonstrates that infants of HIV-infected women are at extremely high risk for HIV infection, even if the infected mother is healthy, and does not engage in high risk activities such as sexual promiscuity or intravenous drug use. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)