Third trimester screening or safer sex to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV
- P K C Goon1,
- R P F Watkins1,
- E G H Lyall1,
- J Parry2,
- G P Taylor3
- 1Imperial College School of Medicine, St Mary's, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK
- 2Virus Reference Division, Central Public Health Laboratories, Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5HT, UK
- 3Imperial College School of Medicine, St Mary's, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK
- Dr Goon p.goon{at}ic.ac.uk
- Accepted 3 April 2001
Editor,—Since 1992 Department of Health guidelines have recommended that HIV screening be offered to all pregnant women in areas of high seroprevalence1 but implementation and uptake has been poor. In 1998 an intercollegiate working party recommended that HIV testing be integrated with antenatal screening for other infections and that the test should be offered and recommended to all pregnant women in high seroprevalence areas.2 In 1999 the Department of Health extended these recommendations to all regions aiming to reduce neonatal HIV infection by 80% by 2002.3 We present the case of an infant with symptomatic HIV infection, whose mother's antenatal HIV test was negative and discuss the implications.
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