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CHICAGO - Government research shows a rapid HIV test can be used on women during childbirth, results that doctors hope will help reduce HIV infections in newborns.
Interrupting the often excruciating yet exhilarating experience of childbirth to test and tell a woman she's infected may seem almost cruel - but it gives doctors a good chance of preventing her baby from becoming infected, too, said study co-author Dr. Mardge Cohen.
It takes about 20 minutes to get results from rapid tests compared with more than a day for conventional HIV testing.
An estimated 700,000 children worldwide developed HIV infections last year, most in Africa and from mother-to-child transmission during childbirth or early infancy. The problem is especially acute in southern Africa, where about one in five pregnant women has HIV but is unaware of it, and many don't see a doctor until giving birth.