Title: Child and adolescent health.

POPLINE Document Number: 314473

Author(s):

Lobach KS

Source citation:

Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 2007 Jan;84(1):5-7.

Abstract:

This brief report reviews twenty years of progress on one front of the AIDS war: perinatal HIV transmission. The rate of infected infants born to HIV-positive women has fallen from 25-30% at the beginning of the epidemic to 2% today. AIDS cases in infected infants rose from about 200 in 1985 to 945 in 1992 and then declined to about 48 in 2004. Although more difficult to estimate, the somewhat higher numbers for HIV infection have followed the same pattern. This dramatic improvement was almost entirely the result of an evolving series of interventions. One of these was the expansion of HIV testing for pregnant women, marked by several milestones. Testing was offered at first only to women at high risk, but in 1995 after a drug trial was found to reduce perinatal transmission, voluntary testing of all pregnant women was recommended; that was followed after a few years by the call to screen these women routinely unless they specifically declined. Later, the advent of a rapid HIV test in 2002 allowedfor testing during labor when the mother's HIV status was unknown. Recent data show that HIV status is now known before or at birth in 93% of mothers of infected infants. (excerpt)

Keywords:

United States
HIV Positive Persons
Women
Physicians
Adolescent Health
Child Health
HIV Transmission
HIV Testing
Pregnancy
Antiretroviral Therapy
North America
Americas
Developed Countries
Persons Living With HIV/AIDS
HIV Infections
Viral Diseases
Diseases
Demographic Factors
Population
Health Personnel
Delivery of Health Care
Health
Laboratory Examinations and Diagnoses
Examinations and Diagnoses
Medical Procedures
Medicine
Health Services
Reproduction
HIV