Drug prophylaxis for human immunodeficiency virus-infected pregnant women: ethical considerations

More than 5000 women infected with human immunodeficiency virus give birth annually in the United States. Many of these women are offered human immunodeficiency virus tests in prenatal settings. One of the incentives for them to be tested is access to medications that have been shown to prolong disease-free intervals in nonpregnant human immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals. However, the use of those medications during pregnancy has not been well studied and some have cautioned against their prenatal use. Thus consideration of these agents may be deferred by some clinicians until the postpartum period. In this article we argue that the availability of such agents should be disclosed to women who are seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus as part of the informed consent process.