Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - 1 December 1995
Federal officials said they will work with Medicaid agencies in Delaware, Florida, New Jersey and Rhode Island to get the message out that the drug AZT can sharply reduce the risk of mothers' passing the virus on to babies in the womb.
The Health Care Financing Administration announced the initiative as part of Friday's eighth World AIDS Day.
"This is something we can do" to combat the epidemic, Dr. Helen L Smits, HCFA's deputy administrator, told a news conference. "We want the message out to every pregnant woman in the country."
Infected women who take AZT for six weeks during pregnancy can reduce the odds of infecting their babies from one in four to one in 12, according to the research published earlier this year by National Institutes of Health.
The project, starting in January, will include distributing videos and brochures to women at grocery stores, hairdressers, churches and other settings in Delaware; offering counseling in jails and county health centers in Florida; mailing information to welfare recipients in New Jersey and working through HMOs and health centers in Rhode Island.
About 7,000 babies are born to HIV-infected women in the United States each year. Medicaid covers 3,000 of those mothers, and many of the rest would qualify if they applied, the government said.
Medicaid also winds up paying the medical bills for nearly 90 percent of children inflicted with AIDS.
The campaign includes a video featuring Roslynn A. Howard, a Baltimore woman who counsels HIV positive women at Johns Hopkins Hospital and is herself infected.
"So far I have not had a woman at my facility turn down AZT," said Howard, who took part in the original study, but received a placebo, not AZT. Her daughter, now 4, is healthy and uninfected.
The U.S. Public Health Service helped produce materials for the campaign. HIV infected women are encouraged to take AZT during the second trimester and delivery, and the babies get it for six weeks.
Copyright 1995/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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Copyright © 1995 - Associated Press. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the AP Permissions Desk.
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