foodconsumer.org: June 27 is the Annual National HIV Testing Day

June 27 is the Annual National HIV Testing Day
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admin on 06/27/2009 10:52:00
 
Today, Saturday June 27, 2009, is the 16th Annual National HIV Testing Day - an
event organized by the National Association of People with AIDS with support
from the Disease Control and Prevention.
The campaign is to promote HIV testing.  The CDC recommends that people aged 13
- 64 be tested as a routine part of their medical care.
The federal healthy agency says "Men who have sex with men (MSM) especially
should be tested for HIV annually.  Heterosexuals who engage in high-risk sexual
practices and others that inject illegal drugs are also encouraged to get tested
at least once a year."
The CDC also recommends that women who are pregnant get tested within the early
months of each pregnancy because this will help eliminate the spread of HIV to
infants.
HIV testing can determine whether an individual carries HIV virus. Early testing
can lead to early treatment and prevent the disease from spreading to others.
The CDC estimates that 1,106,400 people in the United States were living with
HIV infection at the end of 2006 and about 21 percent or 232,700 HIV carriers
were undiagnosed.
For more information on HIV testing in the United States, read the following
report cited from the CDC website.
Late HIV Testing --- 34 States, 1996--2005
Without effective antiretroviral therapy, most persons infected with human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) will progress to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
(AIDS) in approximately 10 years (1). Testing, diagnosis, and medical care soon
after HIV infection and before developing AIDS can prevent unnecessary morbidity
and mortality and reduce further HIV transmission. Persons who receive an AIDS
diagnosis concurrently or soon after receiving their initial HIV diagnosis
(e.g., ≤3 years) represent missed opportunities for prevention and treatment
(2). A Healthy People 2010 developmental objective is to increase the proportion
of new HIV infections diagnosed before progression to AIDS.* To characterize
late HIV testing, CDC examined data from 1996--2005 from 34 states† with
confidential name-based HIV and AIDS reporting (the most recent data available)
to determine the percentage of persons who received an AIDS diagnosis ≤3 years
after receiving their initial HIV diagnosis. The results indicated that, within
1 year of their HIV diagnosis, 38.3% of patients had received an AIDS diagnosis;
another 6.7% received an AIDS diagnosis from 1 to 3 years after their HIV
diagnosis. Compared with whites, greater percentages of persons of all other
racial/ethnic populations received an AIDS diagnosis ≤3 years after their
initial HIV diagnosis. These findings underscore the need for comprehensive HIV
testing programs that include both routine screening of persons aged 13--64
years and more frequent testing for persons at increased risk and, therefore, in
greater need of periodic HIV testing.
HIV infection and AIDS are notifiable health conditions in all 50 states, the
District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories. Although all states have had
AIDS reporting since the early 1980s, states have implemented HIV infection
reporting over time; national HIV surveillance§ with uniform reporting was not
implemented fully until 2008. CDC regards data from states with confidential,
name-based, HIV surveillance systems sufficient to monitor trends and estimate
risk behaviors for HIV infection after 4 years of reporting (3). The HIV and
AIDS diagnosis data in this report were obtained from the 34 states with such
reporting since December 2003.
A standardized Kaplan-Meier method was used to examine time from initial HIV
diagnosis to AIDS diagnosis for persons receiving HIV diagnoses in the 34 states
during 1996--2005. Patients were included in the analysis if the diagnoses of
HIV and AIDS they received met the 1999 case definitions (4). Patients were
followed up through 2006, and cases were reported to CDC by June 2008.
Completeness of AIDS reporting is estimated to be >85%, and duplicate reports
are estimated to be