In order to estimate prenatal HIV screening rates prior to and on admission to labor and delivery as well as review hospital policies around these practices, researchers conducted a survey of hospitals and maternal/infant medical records in 2006. At that time, only 36% of hospitals had a policy to test women with an undocumented HIV status and policies around HIV screening were less prevalent that for hepatitis B screening. African American and Hispanic women were more likely to be tested than white women and those presenting without a known status were more likely to be tested in those institutions with testing policies.
Citation:
Fitz Harris LF, Taylor AW, Zhang F, Borkowf CB, Arthur BC, Jacques-Carroll L, Wang SA, Nesheim SR. Factors associated with human immunodeficiency virus screening of women during pregnancy, labor and delivery, United States, 2005-2006. Matern Child Health J. 2014 Apr;18(3):648-56.
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