Accelerating prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV: Ten-year experience of Universal Antenatal HIV Testing Programme in a low HIV prevalence setting in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong has a low prevalence of HIV infection at less than 0.01%. Universal Antenatal HIV Testing Programme (UATP) was launched in all public antenatal units in September 2001. In 2008, voluntary rapid HIV testing was introduced in all public labour units to fill up the gap for pregnant women without HIV testing during the antenatal period. This study evaluated the performance of UATP and rapid HIV testing with indicators. From September 2001 to December 2011, process and outcome indicators for monitoring and evaluation were collected from the service providers in the form of monthly return of workload statistics and case-based statistics of each identified HIV-positive pregnancy via reporting forms. A total of 479,160 antenatal HIV tests and 2,675 rapid tests were performed in the study period. The acceptance rate for UATP and rapid HIV testing was 98% and 80.4% respectively. With the implementation of rapid HIV testing in January 2008, the proportion of pregnant women with HIV status discerned before delivery increased from 84.9% in 2006 to over 99.5% since 2008. The HIV prevalence in UATP and rapid HIV testing was 0.02% and 0.1% respectively. Fifty-three (68%) out of 78 HIV-infected pregnant women identified from the programme have delivered locally. Forty-three (81%) of them delivered by caesarean section and 50 (94%) of them were given antiretrovirals for intervention. Only three children born before the implementation of rapid HIV testing were HIV-infected. In conclusion, UATP and its rapid HIV testing component have been highly accepted and effective in the prevention of perinatal HIV transmission in Hong Kong.

Keywords:

• HIV infections
• disease transmission
• vertical
• antiretroviral therapy
• highly active
• pregnancy

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank all the Obstetrics Units, Paediatric Units and Microbiology Units of Hospital Authority, the Hospital Authority Co-ordinating Committee of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Special Medical Service of Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Infectious Disease Centre of Princess Margaret Hospital, Family Health Service and Public Health Laboratory Centre of Department of Health, for their collaboration and assistance towards the successful implementation and monitoring of the UATP and its rapid HIV testing component.