Earlier Diagnosis Of HIV Urged By Sexual Health Experts

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 01 Oct 2009 - 9:00 PDT

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National guidelines for HIV testing, jointly produced by the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), the British HIV Association (BHIVA) and the British Infection Society (BIS), are today being published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine (1st October).

It is estimated that over 77,000 people in the UK have HIV but over a quarter of these are undiagnosed. Furthermore, almost a third (31 per cent) of individuals are being diagnosed with HIV late which means that they are missing out on the benefits associated with early diagnosis including prolonged life expectancy.

The UK National Guidelines for HIV Testing, which are being published in coordination with a resource pack, will encourage health professionals who work in areas that are not usually associated with HIV to consider HIV testing as routine when making a diagnosis.

Dr Adrian Palfreeman of BASHH, and co-author of the guidelines, explained: "Many people in the UK are HIV infected but don't find this out until too late for treatment to have its best chance of working. A young person diagnosed with HIV in 2009 can expect a near normal life expectancy, but early detection is the key to achieve this. The problem is many patients are missing early diagnosis and this impacts on their chances of survival."

Dr Martin Fisher of BHIVA, and co-author of the guidelines, also said: "Doctors should see HIV testing as part of routine screening when making a diagnosis. What is concerning is that many patients with HIV who are diagnosed late have often already been seen in other parts of the healthcare system but their HIV was not diagnosed."

Dr Ed Ong of the BIS, and co-author of the guidelines, added: "Every medical practitioner in UK should consider HIV as a possibility when dealing with patients particularly when the diagnosis is unclear as every patient who subsequently presents with an AIDS defining condition is a missed opportunity for early intervention."

There are a number of clinical settings where there are potentially increased HIV prevalence, for example; sexual health clinics, antenatal services, termination of pregnancy services and drug dependency programmes, as well as services for those diagnosed with tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C and lymphoma. There are also several groups at higher risk of HIV infection who should be offered routine HIV testing; these include anyone presenting with a clinical indicator for HIV infection, anyone who has been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection, individuals with a current or former partner with HIV, all men who have sex with men, individuals who have a history of injecting drug use and people from countries with high HIV prevalence.

The publication of the UK National Guidelines for HIV Testing will be supported by a new HIV testing resource pack produced by the Medical Foundation for AIDS & Sexual Health (MedFASH), which will be launched at the BHIVA Autumn Conference 2009, on the 8th October.

Ruth Lowbury, Chief Executive of MedFASH, said: "Making HIV testing a normal part of clinical care can save lives, reduce serious disease and help prevent further transmission of HIV. We have to overcome the barriers. Our resource pack provides practical tools to help busy hospital clinicians to do this."

The Tackling HIV Testing: increasing detection and diagnosis resource pack has been developed to assist clinicians in secondary healthcare settings to implement the recommendations of the UK national guidelines for HIV testing across a range of inpatient and outpatient settings.

Source
The British HIV Association