BMJ 1998;316:1899 ( 20 June )

Letters

Reducing the vertical transmission of HIV

    Women should be tested at time of abortion
    Pregnant women in Singapore support testing
    Department of Health should develop concise fact sheets about infection in pregnancy
    More HIV training is needed for primary care staff
    Screening should not be restricted to areas with high prevalence
    Women must be consulted
    Screening programme has not failed
    Italian obstetricians often don't ask women to take test
    Anonymous testing is unethical

Women should be tested at time of abortion

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITORThe editorial by Mercey focuses on testing pregnant women attending antenatal clinics as the main means of reducing the vertical transmission of HIV.¹ Most pregnant women seeking induced abortions would not have attended antenatal clinics.

In 1996, 167 648 women aged 14 to 49 years had induced abortions. Goldberg et al found that HIV infection often occurs among women thought to be at low risk, and that those having terminations should be included when studying populations of pregnant women in areas of high prevalence.² Birthistle et al showed that women who were seeking terminationsa high risk populationwere not being tested in south west London, an area of high prevalence.³

Several studies have consistently found higher prevalence rates of HIV infection among pregnant women attending for termination than among those attending antenatal clinics. Rey et al⁴ reported that pregnant women who went on to deliver were more likely to have been . . . [Full text of this article]

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Doubtful logic

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But primary care staff are apathetic..

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