The State Health Department has been testing anonymous newborn blood samples for HIV antibodies since late 1987, as a means of monitoring the rate of HIV infection among child-bearing women. The test results are not given to mothers or physicians since there is no identifying information on the sample when the test is done currently. The testing is anonymous to comply with the State's HIV Confidentiality Law, which prohibits HIV testing of any individual without written consent. Any mother who does not want her child's test result may indicate her refusal on the consent form. When a newborn infant tests positive for HIV antibodies it means that the mother is infected, because newborns have antibodies from their mother's blood at birth.
Further tests are necessary to determine if the baby is infected.
About 20 to 25 percent of infected mothers transmit the virus to their babies. Physicians can now significantly reduce the risk that an HIV-infected mother will transmit the virus to her child if it is known early in pregnancy that the mother is infected. I firmly believe that if pregnant women are given this important information, virtually every woman will want to take the test to protect her child. Prenatal care settings that would be required to counsel pregnant women include hospitals, clinics and managed care organizations. The mandate would not apply to physicians in private practice, although the Health Department has appealed to all physicians to make HIV counseling and voluntary testing a routine part of prenatal care.