Get tested and stop it

Slightly 40% of the adult population in the U.S. has undergone HIV screening at least once, and about 10% a year gets tested for the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a recent report.

Intensified Screening

The CDC has been working towards screening an extra 20 million people every year in order to achieve earlier diagnosis of infections with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.

With earlier identification of infections, people can begin to receive treatment at a stage when further progress into AIDS can still be prevented. In the absence of treatment, usually with special anti-AIDS drugs, the HIV-infected individual may experience the onset of AIDS only about 10 years later.

Not only that, an HIV-positive person unaware of the condition is three times more likely to transmit HIV than one who is aware.

In 1987, HIV tests had been done on only 6% of adults in the U.S.; this rose to 15% tested each year in the 1990s and 38% in 2000.

HIV Incidence Rate Readjusted

The CDC also reported that 56,300 new people each year are infected by HIV. This figure is 40% higher than the 40,000 new cases in previous years’ estimates.

Past estimates of new infections in a year were based on new diagnoses made within the year. The figure tended to be an underestimate because a person infected by HIV may be diagnosed for the infection only after several years.

The CDC designed a new test that is able to determine from the serum sample if an infection occurred only in the last five months or earlier than that. This new test has enabled CDC to make its most precise estimate yet of the extent of HIV incidence nationwide.

Despite the revised estimate of new HIV infections, the CDC said the number has been relatively stable for the most part of the decade. The peak in annual incidence was 130,000 infections recorded in 1985; this fell to 49,000 in the early 1990s but climbed back to 58,000 in 1998. It has then stabilized at approximately 56,000 new HIV infections a year since then.

The CDC said that 38% of newly diagnosed cases in 2005 progressed in less than a year to AIDS.

Infection rate was 83.7 per 100,000 people among African Americans, which was seven times higher than for whites (11.5 per 100,000). Hispanics showed an infection rate of 29.3 per 100,000 people.

Experts attribute these disparities to many factors including poverty, drug abuse, imprisonment and lack of access to healthcare.

They also highlight the need for more prevention programs, instead of the current administration’s ineffective abstinence-only programs.

Safety Tip:

* Get an HIV test. This is the only way to be sure of your status.