ay Area Perinatal AIDS Center (BAPAC) has been providing prenatal care to HIV-infected women since 1989 and has nearly eradicated perinatal HIV in San Francisco. BAPAC has a 99.7% rate of preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child, showing that with current technology and antiretroviral drugs, pediatric HIV is largely preventable.
BAPAC currently serves approximately 25 to 30 pregnant women annually in prenatal care. Among the women cared for by BAPAC in 2006, 40% were African-American, 32% Caucasian, 24% Latina and 4% Asian/Pacific Islander. Eighty-seven percent of BAPAC patients have an annual per capita household income of $10,000 or lower. Other obstacles faced by patients include illicit drug use (26%) and mental illness (55%).
The BAPAC team consists of a medical director, nurse practitioner, social worker, two reproductive infectious disease fellows, pharmacist, and an administrative assistant. The bilingual BAPAC staff brings together medical and social service providers who are all trained in the complex medical and social issues faced by women with HIV. Patient coverage and access to consultation is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
BAPAC offers the following services to women and families affected by HIV/AIDS:
Preconception counseling
- Individuals and couples and conducts educational sessions to approximately 200 additional HIV-infected women in the community annually.
- Individuals and couples in serodiscordant (one member of couple is HIV positive) and seroconcordant (both members of couple are HIV positive) relationships who are considering becoming pregnant. Evaluation includes identification and discontinuation of teratogenic medication (that which causes birth defects), smoking cessation counseling, screening for sexually transmitted infections, initiation of prenatal vitamins (and additional folic acid supplementation for those women on trimethaprim-sulfamethoxazole prophylaxis) and referral to drug and/or alcohol cessation programs.
Psychosocial services
- Patients and affected family members and works to get infected clients and affected family members into family-centered care with HIV experts at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH).
BAPAC is a regional and national resource for information and coordinates treatment for pregnant HIV/AIDS patients throughout Northern California.
