All pregnant women in Poland  will be soon able to undergo tests for HIV free of charge - announced Health Minister Ewa Kopacz.

Kopacz added that a decree regulating the performance of such tests should be ready by the fall. Every year about 70 to 100 women infected with HIV in Poland give birth to children. Undergoing such a test gives them a chance to bear healthy children.

“It will be the doctor's duty to offer a patient such a test. He will not, however, be allowed to make or force her to undergo the test. So, the role of this campaign is to change social attitudes and awareness. Its aim is not to force but to encourage to have such tests done,” stated the Health Minister.

Today, Mother's Day in Poland, saw the launch of a social campaign called "Be a winner Mom, do all the tests including HIV tests while pregnant!" According to Professor Magdalena Marczyńska of the Pediatric Clinic of  Infectious Diseases at the Medical University of Warsaw, the risk of a child contracting HIV from its mother is less than one percent with early diagnosis.

It is estimated that about twenty thousand people in Poland do not know they have been infected with HIV. Most often the infected are between 18 and 39 years of age.

Average statistics for Poland show that only every tenth pregnant woman undergoes an HIV test. In the majority of the European Union countries, the average exceeds sixty percent while in England, France and Holland it reaches 98 percent. (di/mmj)