Overview
Welcome to this issue of Preventing Perinatal HIV Transmission: Field Update. You are receiving this newsletter because you have attended one of HRET’s workshops on implementing rapid HIV testing, expressed an interest in perinatal HIV prevention in hospitals, or have signed up to receive it. This quarterly email newsletter connects its subscribers to news updates, trends, statistics, prevention programs, policy initiatives, tools, and useful practices relating to perinatal HIV prevention in U.S. hospitals. The Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET), with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), produces this newsletter as a forum for information dissemination and for communication among and between hospital staff, HIV experts, and researchers.

For more information on HRET’s Perinatal HIV Prevention project, please visit our Web site.

If you have comments or suggestions for future issues of this newsletter, please contact Joan Miller at jmiller@aha.org.

Upcoming Events

Free Audioconference for Risk Managers on Eliminating Perinatal HIV Transmission

HRET and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) will host an audioconference, "Getting to Zero: Using Rapid Tests to Eliminate Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission," on Monday, November 16, 2009, at 2 p.m. ET, 1 p.m. CT, 12 p.m. MT, and 11 a.m. PT.

Designed specifically for risk managers at hospitals and health care organizations, this 90-minute audioconference will provide information and address issues about rapid HIV testing in labor and delivery departments. Topics include:

• Current state of HIV/AIDS
• CDC and U.S. Preventive Services Task Force testing recommendations
• State and local laws and reporting requirements
• Cost

Scheduled speakers include Margaret Lampe, CDC, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, and Georgene Saliba, ASHRM president. A 20-minute question-and-answer session will conclude the audioconference.

To register for this free audioconference, contact Barbara Mooney at (312) 422-2694 or bmooney@aha.org.

Free Workshops in Ohio and South Carolina on Eliminating Perinatal HIV Transmission

HRET and the CDC are hosting "Getting to Zero: How Hospitals Can Use Rapid Tests to Virtually Eliminate Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission" on:

• Friday, November 20, 2009, at the Holiday Inn Worthington in Columbus, Ohio
• Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at Palmetto Health Richland, in Columbia, South Carolina

These free workshops include presentations on:

• New Ohio laws related to HIV testing consent requirements and state maternity facility licensure changes (Ohio workshop only)
• Current state of perinatal HIV/AIDS
• Point-of-care vs. laboratory testing
• Overcoming barriers to training
• Culturally competent patient communication
• Prophylaxis and treatment
• Confirmatory testing
• Quality control
• Intrapartum care
• Referral and counseling
• Reporting requirements
• Reimbursement

Presenters include CDC officials, HRET and AIDS Education and Training Centers (AETC) staff, and local practitioners.

Open to hospital staff from labor and delivery, nursery, emergency, laboratory, infectious disease, and pharmacy, these workshops offer free continuing education credits. To register for either workshop, contact Barbara Mooney at bmooney@aha.org or (312) 422-2694.

NMAETC Webinar on H1N1 Influenza and HIV

The National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center at the Navajo AIDS Network will present the webinar "H1N1 Influenza and HIV" on Thursday, November 12, at 12 p.m. ET, 11 a.m. CT, 10 a.m. MT, and 9 a.m. PT. Presented by Faria Farhat, MD, the webinar is geared to physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, nurses, dentists, clinical pharmacists, and other allied health professionals. Topics discussed include the epidemiology and pathogenesis of H1N1 influenza, clinical features and diagnostic tests to be utilized especially in HIV patients, and medical management of H1N1 influenza including antiviral medicines and potential drug-related issues in HV patients.

Free preregistration is required at the http://www.nmaetc.org/ Web site. Registration closes 24 hours before the webinar. For more information, contact Kurt Begaye at 928-551-2792.

News Updates

Information on H1N1 and HIV

Questions and answers about H1N1 and HIV are provided by the CDC at http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/hiv_flu.htm. Information is included about risks, symptoms, vaccines, antiviral medications, and more.

H1N1 and HIV, Things You Should Know includes vaccination information and useful Web links, part of the October 21 issue of the Florida/Caribbean AETC's HIV CareLink.

Reauthorization of Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program...

On October 30, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act, which will provide over $2 billion in annual funding for care, treatment, and support services for more than half a million HIV/AIDS patients in the United States.

...And Repeal of Ban Against HIV-positive People Entering United States

Before signing the bill that reauthorized the Ryan White program, President Obama announced that the United States will lift a ban on HIV-positive people traveling and immigrating to the country. Repeal of this restriction, which has been in place since 1987, becomes effective in January 2010. The process to lift the ban was started under President George W. Bush.

Tools from the Field

Improving Reproductive Health Care for HIV-infected Women

Presentation slides and audio from the teleconference "Preconception Care and Contraceptive Options for HIV-infected Women" are available from the AETC National Resource Center. The teleconference's expert panel discussed recommendations on strategies to improve preconception and reproductive health care through the integration of HIV management with reproductive health and family services for women with HIV infection. Slides and audio from the teleconference, held October 22, 2009, can be accessed at no cost. Teleconference sponsors were the CDC, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, and the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center (FXB), School of Nursing, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Interactive Visual of the U.S. HIV/AIDS Epidemic

The State of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic, HIV Incidence in the United States provides an "interactive visual method of explaining and presenting HIV incidence data," with data from 2006, the most recent year available. Users can visualize data by transmission categories, as well as by race/ethnicity, and overlay those two categories "to gain a clearer picture of the groups most affected by HIV in the United States."

Recent Research and Articles

Integrating Reproductive Health in HIV Care

The September 10 issue of AIDS features "Integrating Reproductive Health Into HIV Care of Women in the United States: It Is Time," by Carolyn Burr, Rebecca Fry, Shannon Weber, Laura Armas-Kolostroubis, and Margaret Lampe. See pages 1928-1930 of the Correspondence section.

HRET - One North Franklin - Chicago, IL 60606 - (312) 422-2600 - (312) 422-4568

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