Detecting Acute HIV Infection During Pregnancy

Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission has been a major success in the U.S. However, a small number of infants still are born infected in this country each year. To address this problem, the CDC has renewed its efforts to ensure that all pregnant women are tested for HIV antibodies (ACC Oct 6 2006), but, even if this strategy is fully implemented, cases of acute HIV infection will still be missed. Now, researchers describe the detection of acute HIV infection among pregnant women in North Carolina, where nucleic-acid amplification testing was added to standard antibody testing at publicly funded sites in 2002 (for more details on this testing strategy, see ACC May 11 2005).

From November 2002 through April 2005, 187,135 women were te…