Experts: Routine HIV Testing Saves Lives

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The U.S. healthcare system’s failure to routinely test patients for HIV is fueling the spread of AIDS, HIV experts and researchers said.

Almost 60,000 Americans were infected with HIV last year, and 50 to 70 percent of new sexually transmitted infections are spread by people who do not know they are infected.

Two years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended all Americans between the ages of 13 and 64 be routinely tested in all healthcare settings, but a panel of HIV experts said those tests are rarely being performed.

“With HIV, ignorance is not bliss. Those who are unaware of their infection cannot seek treatment, and are at least three times more likely to transmit the virus,” Dr. Veronica Miller, the director of the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research was quoted as saying.

At a national summit hosted by Miller’s group, 300 leading HIV researchers, health care providers and policymakers shared new data on the advances and barriers to early, routine HIV testing.

The experts said the healthcare system is missing critical opportunities to identify and treat HIV-infected people in emergency rooms, doctors’ offices, veterans’ hospitals and prisons. As a result, an alarming number of patients are not learning that they are HIV positive until they are already sick with AIDS, which means their infection had progressed undetected for up to 10 years.

Recent research shows those who are diagnosed and start treatment earlier -- when their CD4 cell counts were below 500 rather than 350 -- have a big advantage: a 70 percent improved chance of survival in each year that follows.

“Now HIV is treatable, we have a test that takes minutes and costs $10. Individuals benefit enormously from treatment, as does society,” conference co-chair Dr. John G. Bartlett of the Johns Hopkins University was quoted as saying.

The researchers said HIV tests are not routinely being performed because of obstructive policies by federal agencies and some states; a lack of funding, information and trained staff; and a lack of national reimbursement for federal agencies. They also said some people responsible for administering the tests do not know about the CDC’s new recommendations or they do not always support them.

The experts said there are some signs of progress, including a voluntary rapid HIV testing program in New York City jails that increased testing from 6,500 to 25,000 inmates between 2004 and 2006. Also, since the CDC made its recommendations for routine testing, at least 16 states have passed legislation conforming more closely to those guidelines.

SOURCE: The Forum for Collaborative HIV Research’s national summit, held Nov. 19 to 21 in Washington, D.C.