U.S. News Connecticut: Hospitals Picked to Offer Patients Free HIV TestsJanuary 6, 2009 Emergency rooms at three Connecticut hospitals have begun routinely offering free HIV screening to patients under a two-year CDC-funded pilot project. While ERs traditionally have not been used as testing sites for STDs, physicians say this is changing as emergency admissions become the only time many who are uninsured and poor have contact with doctors. Connecticut, a small state, ranks fifth in the nation in AIDS cases per capita, said Dr. Steven I. Aronin, medical director of Waterbury Hospital's Infectious Diseases Clinic. In Waterbury, an estimated 300 people have HIV and do not know it, he said. "It's a scary number for lots of reasons. For individuals who have it and don't know it, their immune systems are being depleted as we speak. And they could be passing it on to others." New York Times 01.04.09; Tracy Gordon Fox This article was provided by CDC National Prevention Information Network. It is a part of the publication CDC HIV/Hepatitis/STD/TB Prevention News Update.
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