ELIZABETH CHEUNG ELIZABETH.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 August, 2015, 2:33pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 25 August, 2015, 4:06pm
Hong Kong detected 352 new HIV cases in the first half of the year, hitting a record high for half-yearly figures since the reporting system started in 1984. Photo: Sam Tsang
A doctor has warned of a “loophole” existing in Hong Kong’s prenatal checks, as the city reports its first mother-to-child HIV case this year.
The infected child developed Aids – an immunity disease brought by HIV – before one year old, Dr Wong Ka-hing, consultant of the Centre for Health Protection’s special preventive programme, said this morning.
That was despite the mother having undergone a prenatal check, he said.
“It is possible the mother took prenatal tests, including HIV testing, at an early stage of pregnancy,” Wong said.
“There is a loophole, however, in cases where the mother becomes infected by HIV at a later stage of pregnancy. The child would be at risk of infection.”
The HIV diagnosis came about after the child exhibited symptoms of Aids, such as weak immunity. The child’s current condition was not revealed.
The case was among 28 perinatal HIV patients – those infected between the 23rd week of gestation and seven days after birth – detected in the city since 1984.
It was not known when exactly the infection happened. Possible routes of infection included unsafe sexual contact.
In Hong Kong, HIV testing was usually carried out just once, at an early stage of pregnancy. But Wong said: “A prenatal check testing for HIV can be conducted again at a later stage, for example, at around the 36th week.”
Medication could then be used to reduce the rate of mother-to-child transmission from a range of 20 to 40 per cent, to about 1 per cent, he said.
The centre also announced the latest on HIV and Aids.
In the first half of the year, 352 HIV cases were reported, hitting a record high for half-yearly figures since the reporting system started in 1984.
The number was 16 per cent more than in the same period last year.
Sexual contact remained the main route of transmission locally.
From April to June, 179 HIV cases were detected – of which 100 were acquired from homosexual or bisexual contact – and 31 new Aids cases were also reported.
The latest cases brought the total numbers of HIV and Aids patients to 7,345 and 1,607, respectively, since 1984.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1852386/loophole-hong-kongs-prenatal-checks-lets-hiv-slip
