Testing

HIV Testing

Each year, approximately 16-22 million persons in the United States are
tested for HIV. By 2002, an estimated 38%-44% of all adults had been tested
for HIV. However, at the end of 2003, approximately 252,000-320,000 persons
were unaware of their HIV infection.

HIV testing is entering a new era in this country as lawmakers, health care and
insurance executives, and public health officials are making changes in their
respective fields to ensure that more people will know their HIV status – an
important consideration for maintaining health and reducing the spread of the
virus.

In Ethiopia a new report conducted by Ethiopia’s Federal HIV/AIDS Control
Office (FAPCO) reveals that new HIV infections there have increased 26
percent compared to data collected at the beginning of this 2007 year.

In the first phase of the study, from November 2006 through January 2007,
researchers found that 37,943 Ethiopians were HIV positive, representing 5.4
percent of the total population. The second phase, which ended in August
2007, showed that
70,470 people (7.3 percent of the population) were
living with HIV.

While FAPCO’s Millennium AIDS Campaign aimed to test 1.8 million
Ethiopians from January through July of this year, only 982,452 people were
tested. According to Dr. Yibeltal Assefa, health program officer at HAPCO, 3
million testing kits have been
prepared for the new year.

Rationale for Routine Screening for HIV Infection

Source:
Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention

People who are infected with HIV but not aware of it are not able to take advantage of the
therapies that can keep them healthy and extend their lives, nor do they have the
knowledge to protect their sex or drug-use partners from becoming infected. Knowing
whether one is positive or negative for HIV confers great benefits in healthy decision
making.

Cohort studies have demonstrated that many infected persons decrease behaviors that
help transmit infection to sex or needle-sharing partners once they are aware of their
positive HIV status. HIV-infected persons who are unaware of their infection do not reduce
risk behaviors. Persons tested for HIV who do not return for test results might even
increase their risk for transmitting HIV to partners. Because medical treatment that lowers
HIV viral load might also reduce risk for transmission to others, early referral to medical
care could prevent HIV transmission in communities while reducing a person's risk for
HIV-related illness and death.