INDIANAPOLIS—Sunday, March 10 is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and to help raise awareness, the Indiana State Department of Health is now providing a new resource, www.1test2lives.org. The website is part of the One Test Two Lives campaign, which aims to educate obstetricians, gynecologists, nurse midwives, patients and other health care professionals on the importance of perinatal HIV testing and counseling.

At the end of 2011, there were 10,280 known cases of HIV/AIDS in Indiana, with approximately 500 new cases reported annually. Women account for fewer than 20 percent of all cases in the state with black women accounting for 65 percent of all newly reported cases among women.

Perinatal transmission is the most common route of HIV infection in children and is now the source of almost all AIDS cases in children in the United States. Since the beginning of the epidemic in the 1980s, there have been 826 reported cases of children in Indiana having been infected perinatally with HIV.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all pregnant women be screened for HIV as early as possible during each pregnancy. Repeat screening during the third trimester is valuable for women who have a concern about their HIV status or who have participated in any risk behaviors during their pregnancy.

State health officials say with appropriate intervention and therapy, only one to two percent of pregnant women with HIV will transmit the virus to their unborn children. Without proper treatment, there is a 25 percent chance of transmission. Testing is the only way for a woman to know her HIV status. One test can make a great difference in two lives.

The Indiana State Department of Health, the Marion County Public Health Department, the Indiana Perinatal Network, the Indiana University National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, the Midwest AIDS Training & Education Center, and the Ryan White Center for Pediatric Infectious Disease at Riley Hospital for Children support the One Test Two Lives campaign.

To learn more about HIV/AIDS, visit the Indiana State Department of Health’s website at www.StateHealth.in.gov, or contact the Division of HIV/STD/Viral Hepatitis at (317) 233-7949.

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