Only 1 in 5 Teens in the US Gets Tested for HIV

It's no secret that testing young people for HIV can be difficult. Between doctors not wanting to test their young patients, young people not wanting their parents to know that they are sexually active, and even young folks not wanting to acknowledge that they are at risk, teens are falling through the HIV testing gaps. And the Centers for Disease Control 2009 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey confirms as much.

By looking at data compiled from more than 7,500 sexually active teens across the U.S., researchers found that in 2009, about one in five of them had ever been tested for HIV. Researchers also found:

• Roughly 46.1 percent of female teens interviewed had not used condoms during their last sexual encounter, compared to 31.4 percent of male teens.
• Of the female teens interviewed, 12.2 percent had not received any education about HIV/AIDS in school, compared with 13.7 percent of male teens.
• Among sexually-active teens interviewed, 11.2 percent of the females had four or more sexual partners in their lifetime, compared to 16.2 percent of the males.
• Testing was more common among "higher risk" populations, but even in those groups, less than 50 percent had ever been tested.

So what can be done?

In an editorial about this report, Lawrence D'Angelo, M.D., of the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., calls the report's findings "disturbing" and wants HIV testing to be done universally at the age of 13 and to be repeated every year in all young people who are at risk until they are 18. From there, testing should be done every three years, he says.

D'Angelo's recommendations fall somewhat in line with the CDC's testing recommendations, but differ from the recent recommendations handed down by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) last November, calling for doctors to begin screening at-risk teens between the ages of 16 and 18, but only those who live in an area that has a 1 percent prevalence rate.

What do you think? Should sexually active teens be tested for HIV every year starting at 13?

Kellee Terrell is the former news editor for TheBody.com and TheBodyPRO.com.

Follow Kellee on Twitter: @kelleent.

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