HIV Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about HIV, including details on human immunodeficiency virus, testing, treatment, prevention, vaccines, aids.

Beyond the end of exceptionalism: integrating HIV testing into routine medical care and HIV prevention.

Smith R, Zetola NM, Klausner JD

School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA. rachel.smith@ucsf.edu

In September 2006, the US CDC issued new guidelines for HIV testing. These guidelines were designed not only to simplify and expand HIV testing but also to integrate testing into routine medical care in the USA. The nationwide implementation of these guidelines is currently facing several political and legal barriers. In this article, we examine the origins of current patient-driven and risk-based HIV testing in the USA and highlight shortcomings of this strategy. We then demonstrate how the changing HIV epidemic in the USA requires routine HIV screening at all points of contact in the medical system in order to control the HIV epidemic and how novel testing strategies could increase the yield of testing in these settings.

Published 6 August 2007 in Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther, 5(4): 581-9.
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