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News/Event Item
U.N. Urges HIV Testing for All Patients in Hard-Hit Nations
May 31, 2007
By Craig Timberg
U.N. health officials on Wednesday called on nations with severe AIDS epidemics to offer routine, confidential HIV tests to all patients at health-care facilities in hopes of dramatically expanding the number of those who know they have the virus.
Patients would retain the right to refuse the test, but the new guidelines mark a significant departure from the common practice of relying on patients to seek tests for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. U.N. officials estimate that nearly 80 percent of the people with HIV in poor and developing countries do not know they have it. In Africa alone, they said, nearly 20 million people with HIV are not aware they have the virus.
The new guidelines will not immediately alleviate the problem. Individual nations must first decide whether to adopt them and allocate money to expand testing.
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
For full article, visit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/30/AR2007053002180.html
category: News from Other Sources : General Health News
contributed by Liza Nanni on 31 May 2007
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