The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Nearly 90 percent of the cases of pediatric AIDS in the United States occur as a result of maternal infant transmission.
(b) It is estimated that from 13 to 45 percent of infants born to HIV-infected mothers will acquire HIV either in utero, during delivery, or postpartum.
(c) In 1990, the number of cases of AIDS in women in the United States increased by 34 percent compared to an increase of 18 percent in men. As a consequence of this increased dissemination of HIV in women, there has been a concomitant increase in the number of HIV infected infants.
(d) Approximately 6,000 children were born to HIV-infected women in the United States in 1990. This resulted in 1,500 to 2,000 newly infected infants. Internationally, it is estimated that one million children acquired HIV through maternal transmission in 1990.
(e) HIV infection that is transmitted maternally progresses more rapidly than HIV infection in adults, with most infants developing advanced symptoms of infection within 18 months. Costs for care of infants infected with HIV have been estimated to be comparable or higher than the cost of treating HIV-related illness in adults. Currently, limited data exists for the costs of treating HIV-infected children. A recent estimate for those costs is as follows:
(1) For the mean lifetime hospital costs per child: ninety thousand dollars ($90,000).
(2) For the mean annual cost per child hospitalized all year: two hundred nineteen thousand dollars ($219,000). A significant portion of pediatric hospital costs may be due to a prolonged hospitalization because of the lack of foster homes for children.
(3) For the estimated annual medicaid cost: eighteen thousand dollars ($18,000) to forty-two thousand dollars ($42,000).
(4) In comparison, recent estimates of the national cost of treating an adult with HIV and without AIDS is five thousand dollars ($5,000) per year and the average cost of treating an adult person with AIDS is thirty-two thousand dollars ($32,000) per year of that twenty-four thousand dollars ($24,000) is inpatient costs and eight thousand dollars ($8,000) for other services.
(f) AIDS vaccines are now available for testing in FDA-approved clinical trials in HIV-infected pregnant women for the purpose of protecting against HIV transmission from mother to child.
(g) Manufacturers are hesitant to conduct these trials because of the combined threat of liability and the limited market to reimburse the research and clinical trial investment.
(h) The California Legislature wishes to encourage FDA-approved AIDS vaccine clinical trials to protect against maternal HIV transmission from mother to child, that may also provide a therapeutic effect in the HIV-infected mother. It is appropriate to mandate that grants be made to encourage qualified manufacturers to conduct these trials for the benefit of California citizens.
(Added by Stats. 1995, Ch. 415, Sec. 7. Effective January 1, 1996.)