The Illinois Perinatal HIV Prevention Act was passed in August 2003 and amended in 2006 and 2007. Rules for this Act were promulgated, effective December 18, 2012, and can be found in the Perinatal HIV Prevention Code.
Public Act 100-0265 amended the law in August 2017. It mandates the following:
- Standardized and mandated counseling of all pregnant people.
- Opt-out HIV testing as early in pregnancy as possible.
- Repeat opt-out HIV testing during the third trimester (defined as the 27th week of pregnancy through delivery), ideally by the 36th week of pregnancy (August 2017 amendment).
- Opt-out rapid HIV testing be offered on labor and delivery to people without a documented HIV test from the third trimester of the current pregnancy (August 2017 amendment).
- Mandatory rapid HIV testing of newborns to determine HIV-exposure if there is no documentation of the birthing parent's HIV testing during the third trimester of pregnancy or at delivery (June 2006/August 2017 amendments).
- Reporting of all preliminary positive rapid HIV tests on birthing parents and infants within 12 hours, but no later than 24 hours, of the test result to the Illinois 24/7 Perinatal HIV Hotline at 1-800-439-4079 to ensure medical consultation and linkage to case management (June 2006/August 2017 amendments).
- Documentation of HIV test results in prenatal, labor and delivery, and newborn pediatric charts.
- Hospitals submit monthly aggregate statistics that include the number of people who present with known HIV status, the number of pregnant people rapidly tested for HIV in L&D, the number of newborn infants rapidly tested for HIV, the number of preliminarily positive pregnant birthing parents and preliminarily HIV-exposed newborn infants identified and other information determined necessary.
- Hospitals report cases of perinatal HIV exposure of newborns.
For more information about rapid HIV testing of pregnant people in Illinois, click here.