Should people who are HIV+ and have an AIDS diagnosis bring children into the world?
Of children born to HIV-infected mothers from 1993 through 1996, these states reported 4325 children who had perinatally acquired AIDS (344) or HIV infection but without AIDS (487) or who were uninfected or indeterminate (3494). Since the PHS guidelines were issued in August 1994, 2027 (87%) HIV-infected mothers of children reported in these states had HIV infection diagnosed before or at the child’s birth and 179 (8%) after the child’s birth; the timing of HIV infection diagnosis was unknown for 121 (5%) (Figure 1). For children born from 1994 through 1996, the proportion of HIV-infected mothers who were prescribed prenatal ZDV increased from 24% to 64% (Figure 2). Compared with the expected number of children born to HIV-infected women estimated from the SCBW, as of September 1997, states with HIV surveillance† identified a median of 64% of children born in 1995 compared with a median of 3% in states with AIDS reporting only.
