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News/Event Item
HIV Screening: It's Not So Easy
Aug. 5 2008
By Ishani Ganguli
In the controlled chaos of emergency departments across the country, doctors are working to curb the HIV epidemic, one swab of the gums at a time. The effort stems from guidelines published in 2006 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to extend HIV testing to teens and adults in any health-care setting, regardless of their risk of having the virus. The D.C. Health Department launched its own campaign that year, distributing 80,000 free tests in ERs, community health centers and private doctors' offices.
But there are challenges to actually casting this wider net, as studies are starting to reveal.
Harvard-affiliated researchers were studying testing strategies at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston when they realized that the rapid oral test they used in the ER produced many more false positives than expected.
© Copyright 1996-2008 The Washington Post Company
For full article, visit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080102753.html
category: News from Other Sources : AIDS News
contributed by Winnie Mutch on 6 August 2008
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