Antenatal HIV screening

Antenatal HIV screening

Antenatal HIV screening

By June 2009, New Zealand will offer antenatal HIV screening to all pregnant women.

The aim of the programme is to identify pregnant women with HIV so they can be given treatment to reduce the likelihood of HIV being transmitted to the baby.

The chance of a baby becoming infected with HIV can go from 31.5 percent to less than 1 percent if it is known that a pregnant woman has HIV. This is due to monitoring and treatment of the mother during pregnancy and birth, and the managing of breastfeeding after birth.

The National Screening Unit is responsible for the national aspects of the programme such as developing guidelines for health practitioners, information resources for consumers, and a framework of data collection, monitoring and evaluation to make sure the programme is safe and effective for pregnant women.

The National Antenatal HIV Screening Implementation Advisory Group has been established to advise on national implementation of the programme. This group includes representatives from midwives, doctors, NGO and consumer groups.

The National Screening Unit is also collaborating with the New Zealand AIDS Epidemiology Group to enable quality monitoring and evaluation processes for the programme to be established.

Implementation of the programme took a major step forward in March 2006, when Waikato DHB began offering every pregnant woman in the region an HIV test as part of the blood tests already offered in early pregnancy.

Following commencement in the Waikato, a further nine DHBs are due to implement the programme during 2008, with the rest of the country's DHBs scheduled to implement the programme in 2009.

The benefits of antenatal HIV screening - Dr Graham Mills

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