Chicago Tribune - May 1, 2003

The Illinois Senate has taken a half-step toward reducing the number of such cases and allowing for affected newborns to be treated immediately. The measure says health-care professionals must provide their pregnant patients with HIV counseling and offer them an HIV test. Mothers, however, can refuse the test. The bill says newborn babies whose mothers' HIV status is unknown will be routinely tested--unless their parents explicitly refuse that, too.

And so the impact of the legislation is likely to be modest. If doctors are too busy or too insensitive to counsel their patients effectively, the system could turn out to be a complete dud. It will be up to the Illinois Department of Public Health to track how well it's working.

Some doctors have, indeed, faulted the bill for being too weak. The federal Centers for Disease Control would prefer a system in which pregnant women are routinely screened for HIV--as they are for syphilis, hepatitis, rubella and other diseases--unless they explicitly opt out. Supporters of the legislation contend that routine screening makes it too easy for doctors to gloss over the time-consuming counseling and go straight for the testing.

Given the tepid wording of the testing requirements, the counseling about HIV--how it's transmitted, how women can protect themselves and their babies--is likely to have the greater impact. Those few minutes could potentially change high-risk behavior and prevent a young woman who got pregnant through unprotected sex from contracting HIV in the future and infecting others, including future offspring.

The bill could prompt women who are not considered at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS--middle-class women in monogamous relationships, for example--to consider getting tested.

The self-congratulation in Springfield should be held to a decorous minimum. The compromise on testing probably means that some children will still contract HIV/AIDS, even though it could have easily been avoided.

Mother-to-child transmissions are a small fraction of the total HIV/AIDS cases. Nationally, it is estimated there are 40,000 new cases a year, only 300 of them transmitted perinatally. In Illinois, 132 cases of HIV were reported in children under age 5 between July 1999 and November 2001 (the latest period for which statistics are available).

That number should dwindle. The new law may help. Some obstetricians are already routinely counseling their patients and offering HIV tests. To make a more serious dent in the spread of HIV/AIDS, though, legislators will have to tackle issues such as teenage sex, condom distribution, needle-exchange programs--and in all likelihood, they will have to revisit the routine testing of newborn babes.

030501
CT030502

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2003. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2003. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .