Pregnant Women & HIV Testing
HIV might be one of the most recognized and possibly one of the most frightening diseases of the past twenty or so years. The percentage of infected people in the world is about 0.6 percent which does not seem like much but, if the amount of people in the world is considered (about 6.6 billion) then it shows how many people this epidemic has effected (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). This percentage has finally started to stabilized over the past few years and new antiretroviral drugs such as Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) have been making a positive change in the quality of life for those already infected. Living with HIV, dealing with the pills, the chronic sickness, and the stigma of a mostly unforgiving society has to be difficult. So, what could be worse than that one might ask? The fact that the disease has been passed on to their newborn child has to be unwanted news. The next question then might be can this be stopped? And if so, how? A start to solving this problem would be mandating all pregnant woman to get tested for HIV.
If a pregnant woman is unknowingly infected with HIV it would be unfair to her, as well as the future child who may, in fact, acquire this disease from its mother. Without mandatory HIV testing for pregnant mothers, the chances of spreading the disease becomes much greater. With about 40.3 million people at the end of 2005 already infected with HIV, babies being born everyday carrying this disease only makes the epidemic more frightening and furthers society from stopping it (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2002). The tests would not only determine if a woman has the disease, but it would give her options and a head start that she would not have wit ...