CDC Recommends HIV Tests, Puts Less Stress on Condom Use

In a significant shift in strategy for the fight against HIV / AIDS, the Centers for Disease Control recently recommended that tests for HIV be extended to all patients in hospitals and clinics in the U. S. The CDC also recommended that the doctors begin with routine voluntary HIV testing for patients between 13 and 64 years.

It is estimated that of the more than one million people in the United States with HIV and AIDS, approximately 25% are unaware that they have HIV. The new strategy aims to discover such cases before HIV develops into AIDS. It is also hoped that these measures be taken to stop the spread of the disease, because these 250,000 people are carriers who unknowingly infect.

This is a departure from the hitherto followed strategy of the test only people in high-risk groups.

This policy change is also a departure from the promotion of abstinence and the use of condoms to prevent the spread of the disease, including more emphasis on the tests for HIV status, and early treatment.

According to a spokesman for the CDC, explains what this change in policy is that drugs now available, can prevent the development of AIDS from HIV. Early detection can be in the early treatment. In the past, early detection does not necessarily mean a lot, because it is only very little could be done that for someone infected with HIV.

It is also hoped that the early detection is less transmission of the disease. A recent survey revealed that CDC sexually active adults changed their sexual behavior patterns after they were diagnosed with HIV. They were less likely to be in unprotected sexual activities, in many cases, for a condom or not for themselves in sex at all.

Drug companies and makers of the oral exams are to benefit substantially from this shift of emphasis. It is expected that the tests that are now on the management of hospitals and clinics will soon be available over the counter. Interested in the test phase itself in a position to do at home. This should result in a significant increase in the sale of HIV test kits.

There should also be a rise in HIV drug treatment as hundreds of thousands of people learn they have HIV and begin treatment with antiretroviral drugs. Currently, antiretroviral drugs for approximately $ 6 billion in sales in the U. S. This number will increase dramatically if the new testing methods prove to be effective.

Some argue that, as in so many areas in the healthcare industry, the efforts on prevention will be replaced by promise of a quick cure to us compliments of the incredibly powerful and increasingly invasive drug.