Ignorance Hinders the AIDS Fight, Researchers Say

Studies released Monday at the 2003 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta emphasized the major role ignorance still plays in controlling the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic. The research presented suggested ways to bolster several fronts in fighting AIDS, including making HIV tests a routine part of medical care, expanding access to the test, increasing attention to prevention among HIV-positive people, and reducing mother-to-child transmission.

One study of primary care clinics across the nation found that doctors and nurses rarely offered HIV-infected patients information about how to protect their partners. Another study found that a program to bring prevention counseling to a gay bathhouse suffered from low rates of return for test results. Only 40 percent of those testing positive followed up to learn their status, even when told they could get the results by telephone.

In two surveys of recently pregnant women, 20 percent reported that had never been tested for HIV, despite government recommendations since 1995 that all pregnant women be voluntarily tested. About 300 vertical transmissions occur each year, despite effective antiviral drugs to prevent them. But as many as 40 percent of women of childbearing age are unaware such treatment exists, according to another CDC study. Researchers also noted several studies positively evaluating the OraQuick HIV test, which can provide accurate results in about an hour for women whose HIV status is unknown at the time of labor.

"Efforts to increase the number of HIV-infected people who are aware of their HIV status, and to link them to testing, treatment and prevention services are critical to reducing new infections," said Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention. Valdiserri and other federal health officials also sounded an alarm that the effectiveness of HIV drug cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s may have hit a plateau. This was attributed to failure of the treatment in some cases, the difficulty of adherence, and late diagnosis and treatment.

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