AIDS testing recommended for most Americans
Government wants routine screening for all between ages 13 and 64
The Associated Press


Updated: 1:12 p.m. ET Sept 21, 2006
ATLANTA - All Americans between the ages of 13 and 64 should be routinely tested for HIV to help catch infections earlier and stop the spread of the deadly virus, federal health recommendations announced Thursday say.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said HIV testing should become about as common as a cholesterol check. Nearly half of new HIV infections are discovered when doctors are trying to diagnose a sick patient who has come for care, CDC officials said.

“We know that many HIV infected people seek health care and they don’t get tested. And many people are not diagnosed until late in the course of their illness, when they’re already sick with HIV-related conditions,” said Dr. Timothy Mastro, acting director of the CDC’s division of HIV/AIDS prevention.

“By identifying people earlier through a screening program, we’ll allow them to access life-extending therapy, and also through prevention services, learn how to avoid transmitting HIV infection to others,” he said.

The announcement was hailed by some HIV patient advocates and health policy experts. They said the guidelines could help end the stigma of HIV testing and lead to needed care for an estimated 250,000 Americans who don’t yet know they have the disease.

“I think it’s an incredible advance. I think it’s courageous on the part of the CDC,” said A. David Paltiel, a health policy expert at the Yale University School of Medicine.

The recommendations aren’t legally binding, but they influence what doctors do and what health insurance programs cover.


Some physicians groups predict the recommendations will be challenging to implement, involving new expenditures of money and time for testing, counseling and revising consent procedures.

Some physicians also question whether there is enough evidence to expand testing beyond high-risk groups, said Dr. Larry Fields, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

“Are doctors going to do it? Probably not,” Fields said.

But the recommendations were endorsed by the American Medical Association, which urged physicians to comply.

“This is important public health strategy to stop the spread of HIV,” Dr. Nancy Nielsen, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based physician who sits on the AMA’s governing board, said in a statement.

No consent form needed
Previously, the CDC recommended routine testing for those at high-risk for catching the virus, such as intravenous drug users and gay men, and for hospitals and certain other institutions serving areas where HIV is common. It also recommends testing for all pregnant women.

Under the new guidelines, patients would be tested for HIV as part of a standard battery of tests they receive when they go for urgent or emergency care, or even during a routine physical.

Patients wouldn’t get tested every year: Repeated, annual testing would only be recommended only for those at high-risk.

There would be no consent form specifically for the HIV test; it would be covered in a clinic or hospital’s standard care consent form. Patients would be allowed to decline the testing.

CDC officials have been working on revised recommendations for about three years, and sought input from more than 100 organizations, including doctors’ associations and HIV patient advocacy groups. The CDC presented planned revisions at a scientific conference in February.

Since then, the CDC has strengthened language on informed consent to make sure that no one is tested without their knowledge, and emphasized the need for doctors to provide information on HIV tests and the meaning of positive and negative results.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14938109/

is this is a front to get all blood samples from Us

cuz you dont really think they care if we are sick or not do you

spit samples maybe. They can do the test with a swab of spit.

This is ridiculous.

well ok , yea its still DNA..i just dont trust this at all. more and more i look around it seems like the leash is getting shorter , hard to explain my thoughts on it without sounding like an Acid freak but this doesnt sound kosher to me.

Reality check: The government isn't saying, "let us test people and send us the results." They're saying "doctors need to test their patients." Of course, they back it up with no money because they have no money, but what I know from working with vaccines, the CDC doesn't make a recommendation if they aren't reasonably sure that the resources exist to carry it out.

As far as the cost to the consumer....I don't know about other areas in the country, but where I live there are places where one can go for a free HIV test.

If the CDC wants to implement this, they better find a way to make HIV tests a lot fucking cheaper.

Yeah, this is not about getting control of an epidemic....it's about the government's evil plot.

Yea even though im taking that as sarcasism its true. the epidemic is CREATED for population control and it beneifts drug companies..no money in the cure my friend !

Do you actually believe that the AIDS epidemic was "created" by the government to keep the population number at bay and, as an added incentive, get kickbacks from drug companies?

I have heard this somewhere before but I really don't buy it. Now, crack cocaine on the other hand....