The Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) joined with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to work cooperatively toward the goal of eliminating perinatal HIV transmission in the United States. The American Hospital Association's (AHA) Section for Maternal and Child Health is working closely with HRET to implement activities for this cooperative agreement. This 4-year project began in September 2003 with several major goals:

1. Assessing the reality of perinatal HIV prevention in hospitals at the beginning of the period and again toward the end;
2. Collaborating with the CDC and other funded organizations to develop tools and training materials, with particular attention paid to facilitating the adoption of new rapid testing technology;
3. Convening maternal and child health experts, as well as experts in HIV and AIDS, for guidance and review of advances in perinatal HIV prevention;
4. Facilitating the dissemination of knowledge, materials, and guidelines on preventing perinatal HIV transmission.

To date, significant progress has been made in achieving these goals. All US hospitals performing 300 or more births per year were surveyed in summer/fall 2004. Over 1,250 hospitals - a response rate of 50% - responded.

In addition, along with the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center and CDC, HRET has created a plan for the tools and materials to be developed for use within hospitals. The first tools to be produced were charts summarizing information on FDA-approved rapid tests for HIV, another chart on FDA-approved HIV1 and 2 Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISAs or EIAS), and a comprehensive map to HIV testing laws of all U.S. states.

An expert Advisory Committee was formed at the beginning of the cooperative agreement. Members are providing relevant advice on project initiatives and products. A list of members is available here.

Information has been disseminated to date through audio-conferences with the Section for Maternal and Child Health, through a quarterly electronic newsletter (see past issues or subscribe on this project's home page), and through presentations at national and regional conferences.

The Perinatal HIV Resource Binder is set to be released in spring 2007. It is a resource tool for any hospital that may encounter a birth at any given time. It can also be used for planning a testing program in labor and delivery and the nursery or can be used as an emergency plan for unexpected births.

Working through hospitals, HRET's objective is to help CDC and its other partners to create more opportunities to offer HIV testing to pregnant women and reach providers that span the continuum of care for maternal and child health services. Most importantly, we aim to foster an environment that supports providers in their efforts to incorporate routine, voluntary prenatal testing and rapid tests during labor and delivery or postpartum, as well as to encourage early prenatal care that includes HIV counseling and testing to prevent infection in women and their babies.