Introduction: The prevalence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is still one of the major public health problems and a common cause of morbidity and mortality of women and children, especially in less developed countries of certain geographical areas. Infections also occur in pregnant women and those, who do not know for infection are at risk of transmitting the virus to the baby befor birth, during childbirth or after birth through consuming mother’s milk. The nurse is most often the first person to contact the pregnant woman and participate in all nursing activities and should, in her professional duty, advise and propose testing, while also providing anonymity and the possibility of declining the test. Purpose: The purpose of this diploma work is to present the importance of prenatal testing and early infection detection from the perspective of pregnant women and the public health system. The aim is also to determine the factors and barriers that have a significant impact on the consent to testing and the impact of the advisory role of the nurse. Methods: A systematic review of literature was used, including articles published in Slovenian and English. The literature was found through CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) and MEDLINE. The analysis included 33 articles that were relevant to our aim. Articles published between 2005 to 2017 were used. Results: HIV testing is associated with success of treatment and reducing the possibility of transmission of the virus to the child. These facts make testing important from the public health system perspective, since minimal financial contributions can significantly impact the spread of infection and reduce the cost of lifelong treatment of mothers and children. There are many obstacles and factors that are significantly affecting consent to testing. Nursing advice and recommendations as well as knowledge and awareness of the infection have proven important for consent to testing. Discussion and conclusion: Testing pregnant women plays an important role in preventing the transmission of the virus to the child and thus the spread of the infection. In order to stem the infection, the level of preventive actions and the promotion of testing needs to stay at its current state or even increase. The emphasis must be on educating the entire population. Information and knowledge about the infection help increase consent to testing, reduce discrimination and stigma, as well as eliminate the obstacles to testing that are often the cause of poor testing uptake and late-diagnosed infections.
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