Knowledge of their children’s HIV status in HIV-positive mothers attending a genitourinary medicine clinic in the UK
M Eisenhut, V Sharma, M Kawsar and T Balachandran
Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Luton, UK
Early diagnosis of HIV infection in childhood is important for timely initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) before potentially life-threatening opportunistic infections occur when the immune system deteriorates. In the long term, asymptomatic HIV-infected persons’ knowledge of HIV status is important in order to avoid transmission to partners and to recipients of blood products from infected donors. Therefore, the British HIV Association’s guidelines recommend the offer of testing to children of HIV-infected mothers in order to detect vertical transmission [1]. Many immigrants to the United Kingdom come from countries where perinatal measures to reduce vertical HIV transmission are not implemented or may not have been in place when older children (i.e. those immigrating with the parents) were born.
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