Potential Efficacy of Pregnancy Status on HIV Laboratory Reports

Introduction In Louisiana, information contained on electronic laboratory reports is not able to identify the pregnancy status for the majority of HIV-infected women.1 Laboratories have access to ICD9/ICD10 codes which could provide information about pregnancy status, but few laboratories provide these codes to Health Departments. In some areas, such as New York City, the reporting of pregnancy status, if available, is required.2 This study quantifies the opportunities for reducing perinatal HIV transmission if pregnancy status was available on laboratory reports and determines if this information would have been useful for targeting these pregnancies for follow up from Disease Intervention Specialists (DIS). If pregnancy status is found to be useful, states should require pregnancy status in their laboratory reporting guidelines.