BMJ  2007;334:1287-1288 (23 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39241.438519.3A

Letters

HIV and pregnancy

Are we doing enough?

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

Gray and McIntyre report that the rates of mother to child transmission of HIV are dramatically reduced by antiretroviral use, caesarean section, and avoidance of breastfeeding.1 However, none of these effective interventions can take place without awareness of the mother's HIV status.

In the United Kingdom, all antenatal clinics routinely offer HIV testing.2 Most mothers accept screening. Two recent cases, however, highlight the deficiencies in the existing system. In 2006 the two infants were diagnosed with HIV within a few weeks of one another. Both mothers had had antenatal screening, and both tested HIV negative.

Current antenatal testing policies fail to take into account ongoing risk exposure. In addition, women who seroconvert during pregnancy are at a greater risk of transmitting HIV to their babies as the maternal viral load is at its highest at seroconversion. An alternative explanation is that both patients were tested during the serological window period. . . . [Full text of this article]

A Jayasuriya, specialist registrar, P S Allan, consultant

Department of Genitourinary Medicine, Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital, Coventry CV1 4FH

ashini@doctors.net.uk


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

HIV and pregnancy
Glenda E Gray and James A McIntyre
BMJ 2007 334: 950-953. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Understanding the lived experience of Human Inmunnodeficiency Virus (HIV) informs policy and practice
Carmel Kelly, et al.
bmj.com, 26 Jun 2007 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ