Routine AIDS Tests Will Save Lives

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta, GA, USA) is developing guidelines that would make AIDS testing a routine part of medical care.

Patients in doctor's offices, hospitals, emergency rooms, and other medical settings would be informed that they will be tested for HIV unless they choose not to be. Pregnant women are already being screened using this "opt-out” system, and it has reduced mother-to-child HIV transmission to near zero in the United States.

Aids patients have the best chance of survival if they receive treatment before they develop symptoms. Therefore, early testing for HIV infection is the key to saving lives. However, more funding for treatment and prevention programs is urgently needed, notes the CDC.

There is still no cure for AIDS, and antiretroviral therapy is the only way to extend lives. People who test positive for HIV usually change their behavior to prevent spreading the virus. According to the CDC, low rates of testing are one of the reasons that the epidemic is still growing by an estimated 40,000 cases a year in the United States alone.

Currently, people have to request a test for HIV infection and that is why so few people are being tested. In addition, in order to be tested, people are obliged to receive lengthy counseling before and after the test that can take up to an hour.



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