(DOWNLOAD) "Making HIV Tests 'Routine': Concerns and Implications" by Guttmacher Policy Review * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Making HIV Tests 'Routine': Concerns and Implications
- Author : Guttmacher Policy Review
- Release Date : January 22, 2008
- Genre: Family & Relationships,Books,Nonfiction,Professional & Technical,Law,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 68 KB
Description
Well over two decades after the AIDS epidemic burst onto the American scene, an estimated 40,000-55,000 people in the United States are still newly infected each year--a statistic that has remained relatively unchanged since 1998. A staggering one in four individuals with HIV--about 250,000 Americans--are believed to be unaware they are infected with the virus. Moreover, close to 40% of people who test positive for HIV are diagnosed within just one year of developing full-blown AIDS, and the majority of those who get an HIV test late in the course of their infection do so because they are already ill. Against this backdrop, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently recommended that HIV testing be a standard part of medical care for every American aged 13-64. Expanded HIV testing has widespread support among physicians, public health officials, patient advocates and AIDS organizations, who agree that intensified efforts are critical, both to ensure that HIV-positive people live longer, healthier lives and to enhance prevention efforts. At the same time, many AIDS organizations and human rights groups have raised concerns about making HIV tests "routine" (i.e., patients not wishing to be tested must affirmatively opt out) and what effect this might have on stigma and discrimination, informed consent, the availability of HIV testing in other settings and medical care costs. In addition, there is real concern that the CDC's HIV testing initiative--itself part of a larger federal initiative largely focused on identifying and providing services, including behavior-change counseling, to HIV-positive individuals--represents a retreat from more comprehensive HIV prevention efforts. Although the paradigm shift toward "prevention for positives" has considerable merits on its own terms, advocates charge that it calls into question the nation's commitment to broader primary prevention efforts aimed at people at risk of contracting HIV.
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