Many HIV-Infected Individuals in US Remain Undiagnosed -- HIV/AIDS INFO AND UPDATES

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 12:33:10 05/16/02 Thu
Author: Anonymous
Subject: Many HIV-Infected Individuals in US Remain Undiagnosed

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/432344_print

Many HIV-Infected Individuals in US Remain Undiagnosed

Reuters Health Information 2002. � 2002 Reuters Ltd
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
Introduction
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 22 - Data from a voluntary HIV testing program instituted in the general medical service of a teaching hospital indicate a high prevalence of previously undiagnosed HIV infection. The findings appear in the April 22nd issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about one third of the people in the US who have HIV are undiagnosed," lead author, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, told Reuters Health

Dr. Walensky and colleagues note that although hospitals with a prevalence of HIV exceeding 1% are encouraged to offer HIV testing and counseling, there are still about 300,000 HIV-infected individuals in the US who are undiagnosed.

The researchers implemented the "Think HIV" program, which offers voluntary HIV testing to all in patients as a routine procedure. "We tried to do a global screening of patients admitted to the hospital's general medical service, and we excluded people who knew that they were HIV-positive," Dr. Walensky said.

During the 9-month program, patients were 3.4 times more likely to have HIV testing compared with patients admitted during a 15-month control period when the Think HIV program was not in effect, the investigators found.

When the Think HIV program was employed, approximately two new cases of HIV infection were diagnosed each month compared with one new case of HIV infection each month during the control period, Dr. Walensky's team reports.

The estimated prevalence of HIV infection among individuals who would not have undergone HIV testing if it had not been for the Think HIV program was 3.8%.

"We are grossly under screening for HIV infection in the US," Dr. Walensky said. "Not only are we not good at targeted screening, we are not even good at targeting. We don't ask the appropriate questions to decide who should be tested, and we don't go the step further to test them," she added.

"My recommendation," Dr Walensky said, "is that HIV screening should be universal, especially in hospitals with a high prevalence of HIV."

Arch Intern Med 2002;162:887-892.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]