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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 22 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USCommittee backs HIV tests for pregnant women
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia doctors would be required to offer HIV tests to pregnant women under a bill that won approval from a legislative committee this morning.
House Bill 429 would also require doctors to refer infected women to counseling and medical services. Women would have the option to refuse the HIV tests. But their refusals would be recorded in their patient records.
“This bill is about protecting babies from HIV infection,” Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-Marietta) told the House Children Health Issues Subcommittee this morning about her bill before the panel unanimously endorsed it.
Nearly a quarter of all women who are pregnant in Georgia are not tested for the HIV virus because their doctors don’t consider them to be at high risk, Cooper said.
“In most cases, it is middle-class women,” Cooper said of those who are not tested. “And their physician or their healthcare provider doesn’t consider them to be in the high-risk pool. And unfortunately, if you know anything about the HIV virus, everyone is at risk.”
Somewhere between 20 and 30 babies are born with HIV each year in Georgia, Cooper said, citing estimates from the state Department of Human Resources Division of Public Health. Treatment costs an estimated $600,000 per baby, according to the public health agency.
Treating HIV-infected pregnant women in their first trimesters can reduce the possibility that their babies become infected with the virus to as low as 1 percent, Cooper said. Infected mothers who don’t get the treatment have a 25 percent chance of delivering babies with HIV, she said.
Several doctor groups spoke in favor of the legislation this morning, despite concerns committee members raised about liability for doctors and patient confidentiality. The bill is drawing support from the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Georgia Obstetrical and Gynecological Society.
“There is no question that this does save lives,” said Dr. William Sexson, a pediatrician and representative from the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “The impact on human life is dramatic. And if we know about this HIV disease we can do something to help the kids and help the mothers prevent problems in future pregnancies.”
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