It's about time!

The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force is in the process of considering a recommendation to make routine HIV testing part of clinical care. While the CDC has been recommending universal testing since 2005, the task force has been slow to get on board. Initially, this was because there were concerns that a positive test might not change patient behavior enough to benefit the population at large. There were worries that the benefits of the test might not actually outweigh the costs.

Research on treatment as prevention may have contributed to the change in the conversation. A large clinical trial has shown that HIV treatment not only improves patient health but reduces the chances of transmitting the virus to sexual partners. This means that testing and prompt treatment doesn't only benefit the positive patient - it also reduces population risk by potentially decreasing the spread of the virus.

Hopefully the recommendation will go forward. In addition to improving the likelihood that doctors will actually test their patients for HIV, a task force recommendation has another very important benefit. The health care reform law requires insurance companies to cover any tests that the task force endorses. Even though testing is not particularly expensive, and is often available for free, guaranteed insurance coverage could remove a major barrier to incorporating HIV testing into routine medical care.

• The CDC's Universal Testing Recommendation
• Reasons Doctors Don't Test For STDs

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Source: http://std.about.com/b/2012/08/27/its-about-time-2.htm

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