Why is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommending that pregnant women be tested for HIV?
Highly effective interventions exist that can prevent HIV-infected women from transmitting the virus to their infants. The timely administration of antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy can reduce the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission to 1-2 percent, and also improve the health of the mother. When preventive anti-retroviral treatment is not initiated until labor and delivery or given solely to the newborn, the risk of transmission is estimated at about 9 percent to 13 percent. Without any intervention, the chance of transmission is approximately 25 percent in the United States. To reduce HIV transmission in the United States, CDC recommends that all pregnant women 1 Receive prenatal care; 2 Be offered screening for HIV; 3 If the women is HIV infected, be offered combination antiretrovirals prenatally and intrapartum; as well as obstetrical interventions at delivery and antitretroviral prophylaxis to their newborn; 4 Be offered routine voluntary rapid screening at labor and deliv
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