new push for most in the US to get at least 1 HIV test

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_HIV_TESTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-11-20-07-35-50

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's a new push to make testing for the AIDS virus as common as cholesterol checks.

Americans ages 15 to 64 should get an HIV test at least once - not just people considered at high risk for the virus, an independent panel that sets screening guidelines proposed Monday.

The draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are the latest recommendations that aim to make HIV screening simply a routine part of a check-up, something a doctor can order with as little fuss as a cholesterol test or a mammogram. Since 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has pushed for widespread, routine HIV screening.

Yet not nearly enough people have heeded that call: Of the more than 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, nearly 1 in 5 - almost 240,000 people - don't know it. Not only is their own health at risk without treatment, they could unwittingly be spreading the virus to others.

[SheilaT]

1. Why?

Are they hypothesizing that basically everyone is at risk? And why is that?

[Chemisse]

2. I guess anyone who is sexually active could have some level of risk

I don't think there are enough safeguards to privacy for people to feel comfortable with this. If I felt I was at risk I would try to get tested anonymously.

[SheilaT]

3. But the recommendation is for EVERYONE

between the ages of 15 and 64, a blanket recommendation that does not take into account that not everyone is actually at risk.

I'm 64 now, so in theory I should take the test. But unless you can get HIV from public toilets or having a gay waiter, I have no risk. I needn't go into the details of my sexual history, but it's been over 30 years since I've had sex with anyone other than my now ex.

I hate to start thinking things like, this is just another way for the companies that make the test to make lots of money.

[Chemisse]

4. I can't discount the desire to make a profit on this.

But still, just about everyone in that age category is going to be sexually active at some point in time. That leads to the question: how often?

A sexually active person who is not monogamous (or whose partner has multiple sex partners) could contract the virus a day after the blood test. So just being tested one time is pretty meaningless.

It seems like a better idea to do what people do now: get tested when they have concerns, or before entering a new relationship.

[SheilaT]

5. I am inclined to agree.

Back when HIV/AIDS was first being known, my husband and I, recently married, had a serious conversation about whether or not either of us needed to be tested. We concluded that neither of us did.

At my age, if I were to start a new relationship, I don't know what I'd do about that.