Greetings,
I will try to clarify, the statements.

<<<< What confidentiality law? Does this mean that a child's test results are
not
passed on to parents to respect the child's confidentiality? Has this ever
applied
to anything other than HIV? >>>>

There is a confidentiality law that requires a persons consent for testing and
prevents disclosure of HIV status.  In NYC they were testing the HIV status of
all babies but it was all done without consents so no one was ever notified of
results. It was just to find out how extensive exposure to the virus was. Now,
if a mom is not tested during her pregnancy, and the baby is found to be
positive, I think they have started to notifiy the mom of the babys status.  I
do not know if this has ever been applied to any other disease.

<<<>>>

There are newer tests that can be done to determine if the baby is HIV
positive within a very short period of time, I think one to two weeks.  They
are now doing this test in NYC.  When the study was done, the results showed a
drastic reduction of transmission to the baby if AZT was started, so they now
do this with all babys if the mom is HIV positive. This has been the case for
several years. The moms are started on AZT during the later months of
pregnancy, given AZT during labor and delivery and then the baby gets it for 6
weeks after birth.  I am not sure what you mean by *Do they know that HIV is
not transmitted or is it possibly delayed.*

<<<How does C/SEC and lifting the uterus out of mother's body reduce
exposure to Mom's blood? The baby has been exposed to Mom's blood through the
uterus for 9 months before birth. Is there something different about the birth
process itself
than pregnancy?  Also, There isn't that much blood involved in a vaginal birth
until the
placenta separates after the baby is born. I don't know that the exposure to
blood
is any less in a C/sec.>>>

They have found that transmission occurs, mostly, during the delivery process.
By doing a c/section, and lifting the uterus out of the abdomen, they remove
the baby with an intact amniotic sac, this reduces the exposure to the infant.
The baby has not been exposed to the moms blood through the uterus for months
before birth. The baby's blood and the mom's blood never mix, they have two
different bloods circulating and can even have two different blood types.

I hope this helps to clarify the information.

Roni Chastain, RN, LCCE, FACCE