State laws may limit implementation of CDC's recommendations for routine HIV testingOctober 10, 2007A new study concludes that routine testing for HIV recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) may violate many state laws. The study, published on October 10 in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE), found that more than thirty states require specific consent before HIV testing may occur. Nearly half of them require that consent to be in writing. Those state laws stand in contrast to recommendations issued by the CDC in 2006, recommending routine HIV testing for all Americans between ages 13 and 64. According to the CDC, adults should be tested, after notification, unless they refuse. Organizations around the country are now considering how to implement the CDC's recommendations. Researchers, led by Leslie Wolf at Georgia State University College of Law's Center for Health, Law and Society, learned that almost half the states require disclosure of specific information about HIV to patients before testing. Required disclosures include information describing how HIV is transmitted, what people can do to protect themselves from getting the disease, and what will be done with test results. These requirements were adopted to encourage testing when the HIV test first became available in the 1980s. Professor Wolf and her colleagues found that states that have recently amended their HIV laws have kept these requirements, despite the CDC recommendations. Wolf and her colleagues contend that HIV testing practices are unlikely to change without better understanding of why states have retained requirements for specific consent and pre-test counseling. They suggest that under the limited disclosures contemplated by the CDC, patients may not have enough information to make an informed decision about HIV testing. In addition, eliminating requirements for pretest disclosures and counseling may remove an important mechanism for educating individuals about HIV and reducing risk of disease transmission. Public Library of Science |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Related Hiv Testing Current Events and Hiv Testing News Articles Many pregnant women avoid HIV screening in Africa 'Prevention is the best cure' is a common expression, but what happens if preventative measures are not used? A large proportion of pregnant Ugandan women are going out of their way not to be HIV tested, increasing the risk of mother-to-child transmission. Brazil proves developing countries can use generic medicines to fight HIV/AIDS epidemic Brazil's nearly two-decade effort to treat people living with HIV and AIDS shows that developing countries can successfully combat the epidemic. New study debunks misconceptions about barriers to the CDC's HIV testing recommendations Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released revised recommendations for opt-out HIV testing in 2006, there has been significant debate around the barriers to widespread implementation of the recommendations. Circumcision Reduces the Risk of HIV Infection in Heterosexual U.S. Men A new U.S. study has found that being circumcised significantly reduced the risk of HIV infection in heterosexual African American men known to have been exposed to the virus. ACP recommends routine HIV screening for all patients On World AIDS Day, the American College of Physicians (ACP) is giving doctors a call-to-action to routinely encourage HIV screening to all of their patients older than 13 years. This new practice guideline appears on the Annals of Internal Medicine Web site at www.annals.org. Landmark study defines benefits of early HIV testing and treatment for infected infants Testing very young babies for HIV and giving antiretroviral therapy (ART) immediately to those found infected with the virus dramatically prevents illness and death, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. New HIV-reduction initiative takes to the fields Education has found its way onto the soccer fields of North Carolina - in the form of a social experiment that may have all the right ingredients to change the direction of Latino health in the United States. Rapid HIV testing in the ER boosts diagnoses, screening One in every 50 people screened for a suspected sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the Emergency Department at Henry Ford Hospital was found to be infected with HIV using a rapid blood sample screening test. Integrating antiretroviral therapy with TB treatment for co-infections reduces mortality A South African treatment study conducted by researchers in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health shows that mortality among TB-HIV co-infected patients can be reduced by a remarkable 55%, if antiretroviral therapy (ART) is provided with TB treatment at the same time. Study reveals gap in HIV testing knowledge among college students Most college students understand how they can prevent the transmission of HIV but are less knowledgeable about HIV testing, according to a new University of Georgia study. More Hiv Testing Current Events and Hiv Testing News Articles |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||