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medpundit |
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Sunday, January 30, 2005The New York Times reported 2,000 babies were born infected with HIV in 1990, but now the number has declined to just over 200 a year. In New York City, health officials said 321 babies were born with the virus, but the number was reduced to just five in 2003. The reason is two-fold: Better drugs for infected pregnant women and automatic HIV screening in all pregnancies. When I was a resident in the late '80s and early'90s it, HIV testing of pregnant women was still not routine. Testing people for HIV was shrouded in secrecy. It required a special consent form and a special procedures that insured the patient's name wasn't connected with the test. The blood specimen even had to be transported in a special plain cardboard tube. Tests for other sexually transmitted diseases, however, were done routinely so that they could be treated. HIV is done pretty much like that now, although it still requires a consent form. You can't treat something if you can't diagnose it. posted by Sydney on 1/30/2005 12:45:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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