Thursday, 17 July 2008
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Mandatory HIV Testing in Pregnancy?
Right now several, but not all, states require mandatory HIV testing of pregnant women either prenatally, or when they arrive in labor and delivery if their test results are not on file. In some states you can voluntarily “opt-out” of the test for any reason, or may only “opt-out” for religious reasons. In other states, there is no “opt-out’ option whatsoever. There are also states that provide the “opt-in” method of testing where you certainly may have it done, but it not presented as any type of requirement, or routine prenatal lab (such as blood type and hepatitis screen).
I personally believe it should be a part of routine and mandatory testing for all pregnant women. While this may raise all sorts of privacy issue debates, I’d like to explain why I feel these testing practices trump any possible health privacy arguments. If a woman is HIV positive and it is not identified and treated, she has a 25% of passing it along to her baby during her delivery (clearly the baby being an unknowing victim). If she is identified and treated prenatally this number drops to 2%. Even if not treated until in labor, just prior to delivery the transmission rate can still be brought down to 5%. And interestingly, it is in labor and delivery that 40% of women with HIV are being identified when Rapid tests are performed on admission--women that failed to get diagnosed during prenatal care (or perhaps who had no prenatal care).
To me, saving these babies in worth the privacy violation of the mother. What are your thoughts? Should women have the option to “opt-out” of getting testing? Or should it be required?
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Comments (2)
The way things are these days, I'm not going to argue against the idea.
For the birth of our third child, (all C-section), the doctor stuck herself while sewing my wife up. I know that if I was a doctor, I'd want to know if my patient had HIV or anything like that.
I think that the way our culture is today, having an opt-out option is a must.
My opinion is.. As a mother, if I was HIV positive, I'd want to know to ensure a lower chance of my baby getting the disease as well. I know that far too many women don't care about their unborn children enough to feel the same way *break my heart, but it's so true* and would opt-out simply because they had the fear of testing positive. If they had no option, rates of HIV would drop slightly because of the lower risk of unknowing moms passing on the disease. I think that testing is very important during pregnancy.. mandatory to some might think their rights are being violated, I think that it would cause a lot more good than harm. =)