Voluntary HIV Testing Urged for All Pregnant Women

All pregnant women should be voluntarily tested for HIV because dramatic evidence shows that mothers who are infected can protect their unborn children by taking the drug AZT, the government said Thursday.

Until now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended testing only for those pregnant women at high risk of infection, such as intravenous drug users, bisexuals and prostitutes.

This is the first time the agency has suggested voluntary testing for an entire group of people.

“Simply knowing a woman is infected will not prevent transmission of HIV to her baby,” said Dr. Helene Gayle, who heads the CDC’s AIDS efforts. “To reduce chances of transmission, we must provide ongoing treatment and care, including AZT therapy.”

The CDC wants to make HIV testing standard prenatal care for the 4 million women a year who become pregnant, even if they are at very low risk of infection.

Scientists determined that any inconvenience or expense would be offset by the number of babies whose lives would be saved.

A federal study, published in the November issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, found that women who take AZT during pregnancy could reduce by two-thirds the risk of transmitting the virus to their babies.

Without the drug, as many as a third of the children born to HIV-infected women--about 2,000 infants a year--will be infected, the study said.