U.S. CODE

U.S. Code

§ 300ff-37a. Recommendations for reducing incidence of perinatal transmission

(a) Study by Institute of Medicine

(1) In general

The Secretary shall request the Institute of Medicine to enter into an agreement with the Secretary under which such Institute conducts a study to provide the following:

(A) For the most recent fiscal year for which the information is available, a determination of the number of newborn infants with HIV born in the United States with respect to whom the attending obstetrician for the birth did not know the HIV status of the mother.

(B) A determination for each State of any barriers, including legal barriers, that prevent or discourage an obstetrician from making it a routine practice to offer pregnant women an HIV test and a routine practice to test newborn infants for HIV/AIDS in circumstances in which the obstetrician does not know the HIV status of the mother of the infant.

(C) Recommendations for each State for reducing the incidence of cases of the perinatal transmission of HIV, including recommendations on removing the barriers identified under subparagraph (B).

If such Institute declines to conduct the study, the Secretary shall enter into an agreement with another appropriate public or nonprofit private entity to conduct the study.

(2) Report

The Secretary shall ensure that, not later than 18 months after the effective date of this section, the study required in paragraph (1) is completed and a report describing the findings made in the study is submitted to the appropriate committees of the Congress, the Secretary, and the chief public health official of each of the States.

(b) Progress toward recommendations

In fiscal year 2004, the Secretary shall collect information from the States describing the actions taken by the States toward meeting the recommendations specified for the States under subsection (a)(1)(C) of this section.

The Secretary shall submit to the appropriate committees of the Congress reports describing the information collected under subsection (b) of this section.

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