15th Annual Conference of the British HIV Association 1-3 April 2009, Liverpool, UK

HIV TESTING IN TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY SERVICES

HIV Med 2009 Apr 1-3; 10(Suppl. 1):3 (abstract no. O9)

S Creighton, L Stacey and I Reeves
Homerton University Hospital, London, UK

BACKGROUND: Recent guidelines recommend that HIV testing should be expanded across a number of healthcare settings with increased use of opt-out testing. Anonymous seroprevalence data suggest the prevalence of HIV among women attending one inner city hospital for termination of pregnancy (TOP) may be >1%. This study assesses uptake of HIV testing among women attending for TOP, following the introduction of a new opt-out service.

METHODS: From April 2008 the TOP service offered opt out HIV testing to all attendees. The demographics and uptake for women attending the TOP service were compared with those attending antenatal clinic (ANC) and genito-urinary medicine (GUM), (both established opt-out testing sites) between 01/04/08 and 31/08/08. Attendees were identified retrospectively from an electronic database. Women known to be HIV positive prior to attendance were excluded.

RESULTS: Women attending GUM or TOP were significantly more likely to have a positive HIV result than those attending ANC (P<0.01)

CONCLUSIONS: Reducing undiagnosed HIV infection is an urgent public health priority. Women attending TOP had a higher prevalence of HIV than those attending ANC or GUM. Baseline CD4 was higher. This study shows that routine HIV testing at TOP clinics is feasible and may identify women at an earlier stage of HIV than other venues. Initiatives such as this are likely to reduce the excess morbidity and mortality associated with late diagnosis and may reduce onward HIV transmission.

2009-04-01
O9

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