Posted on 05/11/2007 10:42:53 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey would become the first state to require both pregnant women and newborns to be tested for HIV under a proposal introduced by the Senate president.
The bill would require all pregnant women be tested for HIV twice, once early in the pregnancy and a second time in the third trimester. Every birthing facility in the state would have to test all newborns in their care.
Senate President Richard J. Codey introduced the legislation on Thursday, which he described as a "no brainer." The Associated Press first reported on Codey's plan in March.
"The key in the fight against HIV and AIDS is early detection and treatment," Codey said Friday. "For newborns this can be a lifesaving measure."
Codey, D-Essex, said the bill stems from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that found medical treatment during pregnancy can dramatically cut mother-to-child HIV transmission.
The Center for Women Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based feminist advocacy organization, opposes mandatory HIV testing, arguing it violates a woman's right to make their own childbearing and medical treatment decisions.
Current New Jersey law requires providers only to offer HIV testing to pregnant women.
Under Codey's proposal, the test would be given unless the mother chooses, in writing, not to have it.
According to the Kaiser Foundation, a nonprofit research organization focusing on U.S. health care issues, four states — Arkansas, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas — require health care providers to test a mother for HIV, unless the mother specifically asks not to be tested.
Connecticut and New York are the only states that test all newborns for HIV, according to the foundation.
New Jersey has some of the highest rates in the nation for AIDS cases, women with AIDS and pediatric HIV and AIDS cases, according to the foundation.
Codey's bill will be scheduled for hearings in the coming weeks. To become law, it must be approved by both the state Senate and Assembly, and then signed by the governor.
Wonder which Mafia Gang owns most of the blood test labs?...
NJ may be the first state to mandate it, but Dallas County, TX has been doing it for years.
There’s no way to say this gently,
The best way to increase the number of something is to Subsidize it. Just as the state’s superb special educaiton school districts are drawing in family’s with special ed children increasing the costs to property owners here, watch NJ’s Medicaid program increase the number of enrollees using retrovirals and proteaser inhibitor cocktails on the taxpayers’ dime.
The best way to increase the number of something is to Subsidize it. Just as the state’s superb special educaiton school districts are drawing in family’s with special ed children increasing the costs to property owners here, watch NJ’s Medicaid program increase the number of enrollees using retrovirals and proteaser inhibitor cocktails on the taxpayers’ dime.
JerseyHighlander, you could not have taken home a more incorrect "take home" message.
"Codey, D-Essex, said the bill stems from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that found medical treatment during pregnancy can dramatically cut mother-to-child HIV transmission."
It largely happens during birth. Giving perinatally, i.e. when the mother starts to go into labor, the HIV-positive mother antiretroviral drugs dramatically decreases the number of children born who are HIV-positive. That way you taxpayers don't have to pay for a lifetime of treatment with those drugs.
Immune-based prevention of mother-to-child HIV-1 transmission.
The mainstay of reducing HIV transmission risk in infants remains the use of antiretroviral therapy.
FWIW, you can check the related links. BTW, Codey is doing something smart for a change.
I wonder if they test for Maple Syrup Disease, MSUD?
Yep—neverdem is exactly correct.
(b) Diseases and conditions to be tested shall include, but not be limited to: 1. Phenylketonuria; 2. Galactosemia; 3. Hypothyroidism; 4. Sickle cell anemia; and 5. Other hemoglobinopathies; as designated by the Commissioner.
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