December 15, 2008

San Francisco Chronicle Pushes U.S. to Expand HIV Testing

States across the nation need to expand routine HIV testing and follow the example set by California, where the law requires health insurers to cover HIV tests and where doctors have switched from required written patient consent for screenings to oral consent, writes the San Francisco Chronicle in a December 15 editorial.

“But these policies aren’t in place everywhere,” the editorial says. “It’s time to push for a federal policy—and serious Washington money—to make testing work. Setting the right example here [in the United States] will also help in the global fight to curb the AIDS epidemic.”

The piece notes that bolstering efforts to test as many people as possible for HIV would get more people on treatment, which, as studies have shown, decreases the likelihood of transmission from an HIV-positive person to a negative sexual partner.

Search: routine testing, California, insurance

Scroll down to comment on this story.

Previous Comments:

Donald A. Baxter, Iowa City, 2008-12-16 11:47:00
Health professionals need to get better at screening for likely candidates for HIV testing. In North America, HIV is mainly confined to men who have sex with men, persons who purchase and sell sex, and IV drug users. The heterosexual epidemic never materialized in this country. Why should we waste precious resources that could go into treatment and prevention for appropriately targetted groups by testing the entire population. Read what Elizabeth Pisani (she seems ignored in your magazine).

Michael, Haslett MI, 2008-12-16 11:31:01
Personally I think it would even be better to change laws so that HIV testing would come automatically with physicals or any blood work a person has done unless they have already been diagnoised as HIV positive.