Letter to the Editor: The Need for Routine Antenatal HIV Screening for Pregnant Women in Kuwait

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the fastest growing pandemic with enormous health, social and financial impact on countries. The global human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS epidemic killed more than 3 million people in 2003, and an estimated 5 million acquired HIV, bringing to 40 million the number of people living with the virus around the world. Moreover, 700,000 children were newly infected in the same year, most of them through mother-to-child transmission (MTCT). We summarize the available data on MTCT of HIV in Kuwaiti children and discuss the impact of routine HIV antenatal screening for Kuwaiti pregnant women. From January 1990 to June 2003, 20 children were born to 11 HIV-positive mothers. In 5 pregnancies, mothers were aware of their positive HIV status and had interventions to prevent MTCT according to the internationally adopted guidelines. None of the 5 children tested positive at 1-year followup, giving a transmission rate of 0%. Mothers who were unaware of their HIV-positive status (15 pregnancies) had no active interventions to prevent transmission with subsequent infection of 3 children, a 20% transmission rate similar to that reported in North America and Europe.