New Jersey, U.S. Capitol taking on HIV

Published Thursday, December 27, 2007

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - HIV testing soon will become part of routine prenatal care and be required for some newborns in New Jersey under a new law that supporters say is putting the state in the forefront of the national fight against HIV transmission to babies.

Acting Gov. Richard Codey signed the measure into law yesterday at University Hospital in Newark. The law will take effect in six months.

"We can significantly reduce the number of infections to newborns and help break down the stigma associated with the disease," Codey said. "For newborns, early detection can be the ultimate lifesaving measure."

Codey, the acting governor while Gov. Jon Corzine is out of the country this week for the holidays, sponsored the bill as the Senate president.

Meanwhile, a ban in Washington, D.C., against using city money for needle-exchange programs was lifted yesterday, a move officials say will help reduce the soaring rate of AIDS and HIV there.

A provision allowing the city to fund needle exchanges was included in the $555 billion spending bill President George W. Bush signed yesterday. Federal spending packages dating to 1998 previously blocked such programs.

The New Jersey bill allows women to opt out of the HIV testing, but critics contend the screening will deprive women of their right to make medical decisions.

According to the Kaiser Foundation, a not-for-profit research organization focusing on U.S. health care, New Jersey is the first state to push HIV testing for both pregnant women and newborns.

Arkansas, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas require health-care providers to test a mother for HIV unless the mother asks not to be tested, and Connecticut, Illinois and New York test all newborns for HIV, according to the foundation.

New Jersey has required providers only to offer HIV testing to pregnant women. Under the new law, HIV testing will be part of routine prenatal care for all pregnant women, and doctors will provide pregnant woman with information about HIV and AIDS. It also requires newborns to be tested when the mother has tested positive or her HIV status is unknown.

Riki Jacobs, executive director of the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation in New Brunswick, the state’s largest AIDS service agency, said the law won’t help women who don’t get prenatal care.

"We need to focus on getting people into care and keeping them in care," Jacobs said. "That is our most potent prevention weapon."

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended all pregnant women be tested for HIV, though it has said testing should be voluntary. The CDC also found medical intervention during pregnancy can cut mother-to-child HIV transmission from 25 percent to 2 percent.

New Jersey has about 17,600 AIDS cases, according to the Kaiser Foundation. Women represent 32.4 percent of the cases - the third- highest rate in the nation. The national average is 23.4 percent.

The state has about 115,000 births per year and had seven infants born with HIV in 2005, according to state health department officials.

The American Civil Liberties Union and some women’s groups contend the bill deprives women of authority to make medical decisions.

"Women’s privacy rights and choices are as constitutionally valid as any other citizen, regardless of reproductive status," said Maretta Short, New Jersey’s National Organization for Women president.