HIV This Week

Romero-Gutierrez G, Delgado-Macias AA, et al. Mexican women's reasons for accepting or declining HIV antibody testing in pregnancy. Midwifery 2006 Aug 21[Epub ahead of print] http://www.sciencedirect.com/

Romero-Gutierrez and colleagues determined pregnant women's reasons for accepting or declining the HIV test in Leon, Mexico, in a cross-sectional study using a face-to-face questionnaire. 1009 of 1184 (85.2%) women accepted the HIV test. The main reason for accepting was the feeling that the test could be beneficial to their babies (45.1%). The two main reasons for women rejecting the HIV test were the belief that their husbands did not have sexual intercourse with other women (32.6%) and lack of permission from their husbands for the test (23.5%). None of the women tested positive for HIV. The authors conclude that the reasons for accepting the HIV test were similar to those reported in developed countries. The acceptance rate for HIV testing in pregnant women could be improved by counselling men on the value of their wives being tested in pregnancy.