Late diagnosis of paediatric HIV infection in south west London

Abstract

Britain is lagging behind other European countries and some American states in detecting HIV positive pregnant women. Furthermore, even in locations such as ours, where current Department of Health recommendations are being implemented, uptake is disappointingly low. As a matter of urgency, multidisciplinary research needs to be directed towards discovering why pregnant women seem to feel that the social consequences of being identified as HIV positive outweigh the advantages of high quality management for mother and baby. In the meantime the Department of Health should strongly support the recommendations of the Intercollegiate Working Party for Enhancing Voluntary Confidential HIV Testing in Pregnancy, and consideration should be given to implementing an opt-out approach to HIV testing, as approved by the working party of the Institute of Medical Ethics in 1990. thank colleagues involved in the European study on antenatal HIV testing-policies and procedures (EU grant SOC 95200587 05F202) for their help.