In a recent POZ poll, almost 40 percent of respondents said they only sometimes, rarely or never discuss health issues besides HIV with their doc. This could help explain a new Johns Hopkins study suggesting that many young positive women, regardless of viral load, will be diagnosed with another sexually transmitted infection (STI) within 18 months of their HIV diagnosis. “Pediatricians and those who care for young adults [with] HIV…are busy handling other issues when we care for them, like complicated antiretroviral regimens,” says lead study author Maria Trent, MD, MPH. “But family planning and risk-reduction counseling are [also] extremely important…” Trent, whose team examined 143 positive women 13 to 24 and older, urges focusing on women’s overall health, especially in urban communities of color, where the STI prevalence is markedly high.
