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1995 SESSION

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HB 1921 Routine component of prenatal care.

Introduced by: Marian Van Landingham | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY:

Routine component of prenatal care. Requires all practitioners rendering prenatal care to advise every pregnant woman, as a routine component of prenatal care, of the value of testing for HIV infection and to request each such pregnant woman to consent to testing for such infection. Compliance with Virginia's laws on HIV confidentiality, informed consent, test result disclosure conditions, and appropriate counseling requirements is required. Practitioners must counsel all HIV-positive pregnant women about the dangers to the fetus and the advisability of receiving treatment in accordance with the then current Centers for Disease Control recommendations. Any pregnant woman has the right to refuse consent to testing for HIV infection and for any recommended treatment. Documentation of such refusal shall be maintained in the patient's medical record.

This bill is a recommendation of the Joint Subcommittee Studying the Issues, Policies, and Programs Relating to Infection with Human Immunodeficiency Viruses and resulted from a recommendation of the Virginia Pediatrics Society and the Medical Society of Virginia. The professional associations' recommendation was initiated because a recent study of zidovudine (formerly known as AZT) treatment of certain pregnant HIV-infected women, i.e., women with no history of extensive antiviral therapy, indicated that the rate of in utero HIV transmission was reduced among the treated women from 25 to 30 percent to approximately 8 percent. Zidovudine is a highly toxic drug, however, causing severe reactions in some patients, for example, anemia. Further, the long-term effects of zidovudine on the fetus are unknown. Because research in this area is moving fast (other drugs are already being tested), the Joint Subcommittee recommendation relates to “the then current Centers for Disease Control recommendations” in order to accommodate new treatments without amending the statute.


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