Health

HIV testing higher among targeted populations

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Dec. 20, 2004

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Approximately 38% of Americans have been tested for HIV, with 10% to 12% of people being tested for HIV in 2002. These rates are higher for those more likely to test positive for the virus, according to a paper in the Dec. 3 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Approximately a quarter of those with at least one risk factor such as hemophilia, being a man who has sex with men, using injection drugs, or trading sex for money or drugs have been tested. Also, about half of all pregnant women have been tested. The majority of this testing was provided by physicians and health care practitioners with only about 5% being administered at home.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 25% of those who have the virus are not aware they are carriers.

Also, according to a separate report in the same issue of the MMWR, the number of new HIV diagnoses has remained steady with just more than 125,000 new cases reported in the 32 states with confidential name-based reporting, although it was higher among some groups. The rate for men increased by 5% from 2000 to 2003. More than half of new diagnoses were among African-Americans, and the rate for African-American women was 19 times that of white women.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/12/20/hlbf1220.htm.

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