Rapid HIV test for at-risk pregnant women to help reduce infection to newborns.(Brief Article)

2002 JUN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Pregnant women who receive little or no prenatal care and who are at risk for contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS will soon be offered a rapid HIV test aimed at reducing the rate of HIV transmission to their newborns, in a study being conducted by Emory University and Morehouse Schools of Medicine obstetricians at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. The study began April 8, 2002.

The Maternal Infant Rapid Intervention At Delivery (MIRIAD) study will evaluate innovative approaches to counseling and voluntary rapid HIV testing for women in labor with unknown HIV status. The primary objective is to assess the feasibility of obtaining informed consent for HIV testing during labor or soon after birth. MIRIAD, which is being funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also aims to discover barriers to HIV testing and reasons for lack of prenatal care, and to evaluate neonatal adherence and receipt of postnatal care for women identified as HIV-infected. Other study sites include New York, New York, Miami, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana and Chicago, Illinois.

"Women will be able to get test results in a matter of hours, which will enable physicians to offer treatment as soon as possible," said Michael K. Lindsay, MD, coprincipal investigator, associate professor with the Emory University School of Medicine, and director of the maternal-fetal medicine division. Steven Nesheim, MD, associate professor of infectious diseases, is principal investigator. "This will help identify two specific populations - new mothers and their newborn children - and offer the option of being treated." Obstetricians at Grady deliver more than 4000 babies each year. Dr. Lindsay estimated that 20%, or 800, of those women receive little or no prenatal care. Of the women who delivered at Grady Hospital in 2001, 65 were HIV-infected.

Infected women can pass HIV to their babies during pregnancy or delivery, or after delivery through breastfeeding. Without taking preventive measures, the chances are about one in four that HIV will pass from an HIV-positive mother to her baby before or during birth.

The MIRIAD study, using the new, rapid test known as Determine, will draw the expectant mother's blood and test for the presence of antibodies. All results from the rapid test will then be confirmed with conventional antibody testing known as the ELISA and the Western blot test. If the blood contains antibodies, there will be an immediate reaction, indicating that the mother-to-be is possibly infected. Results are available within a matter of hours, compared with 1-3 days with the traditional ELISA and Western blot HIV testing.

Lindsay said rapid testing should help determine if Determine is ...