CDC Urges Broader Testing for AIDS Virus

The CDC is urging health care workers to recommend HIV tests to patients living in areas with high infection rates. The recommendation, the second since 1993, is based on research conducted at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta that found that patients were more than twice as likely to get tested for HIV when their doctors advised it.

In a collaborative study with the CDC, researchers from Grady and the Emory University Center for AIDS Research compared the rate of HIV testing among urgent-care patients at the hospital between March and September 1999 and the same 24-week period in 2000. In 1999, health care workers recommended HIV testing only to those patients who had symptoms of HIV infection or risk behaviors; in 2000, they recommended that all patients be tested. Dr. Carlos Del Rio, chief of medicine at Grady and principal investigator at the Emory AIDS center, said more than twice as many patients were tested in 2000 as in 1999 -- 2,787 vs. 1,100. As a result, 27 more HIV infections were diagnosed in 2000 -- 74 compared with 47.

The CDC did not identify specific regions where doctors should recommend HIV testing for all patients. But the findings, published today in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, suggest that tests be recommended for patients seeking care in clinics associated with hospitals. "We are not advocating mandatory screening of patients," said Dr. Sheryl Lyss, a CDC epidemiologist. "We see this as an opportunity for patients who live in areas with high HIV prevalence to have more access to HIV testing. This will also help to ensure that infected patients get the care they need to protect themselves and their partners."

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