New guidelines to be released this summer by the Centers for Disease Control call for doctors to begin offering HIV tests to all patients, not just those in high-risk categories. The new guidelines have biotech companies cheering, but others are worried about the possible impact on the estimated quarter million people who don’t know they have HIV.
Currently the CDC recommends HIV testing for IV drug users, gay men, pregnant women, and all people in communities with a high incidence of HIV. The new guidelines would recommend one-time HIV tests for all patients, and repeated testing for those in the above high risk categories.
One concern raised is that people might be tested for HIV without knowing it when they go in for a routine physical. While the proposed CDC guidelines call for testing to be voluntary, all that would be required is that the patient sign the standard-care consent form which covers everything else. The patient would have to specifically decline the HIV test in writing.
Many people haven’t been tested for HIV because they fear the impact that a positive test result might have on their lives. For instance, undocumented aliens who test HIV positive are reported to Homeland Security and deported. And in several states, people who are HIV positive can’t purchase new health insurance coverage.
The goal is to identify nearly 250,000 Americans who are living with the AIDS virus but are unaware that they have it the disease. With knowledge of their condition, these people could get treatment sooner and make lifestyle choices that minimize the chance of passing on the virus illness on to others, said Tammy Nunnally, a CDC spokeswoman.
Ann Fisher, executive director of the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago, said that while those are worthwhile objectives, the CDC’s new strategy is “terrible.”
“A diagnosis of HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) isn’t routine, and we shouldn’t be treating it like it is,” Fisher said. “This is something that changes people’s lives, often very dramatically.” — Chicago Tribune
Some patients’ advocates have expressed concern that the recommendations do not include pre-test counseling and sufficient informed consent.
At many HIV testing sites, patients are counseled on the procedure before any blood is drawn. Many centers also require a patient to give “informed consent,” indicating that they understand the risks and benefits of the test.
The proposed recommendations do not require pre-test counseling in medical settings. They call for post-test counseling to be offered only to patients who test positive.
Pre-test counseling and informed consent ensure that patients are warned of possible mistakes in test results, said Catherine Christeller, the executive director of the Chicago Women’s AIDS Project. — Associated Press
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Help save America :)
May 10, 2006
It sounds like a good idea, but i can’t help but wonder what will become of all the blood samples? Forgive me for speculating, but it sounds like an excellent opportunity for them to create a mass-repository of DNA profiles in the process. Sure, they can promise to destroy the samples, but the results can be stored away in some classified database. I always cringe at the thought of a government agency “helping†people.
What an honest world we would live in if the CDC started raising awareness of a far more devastating epidemic, caused by a virus-like bacteria known as mycoplasma. Mycoplasma are virtually impossible to detect (other than through DNA sequencing of your blood), can be easily spread by water droplets in the nose and can mimic a broad range of both chronic and deadly illnesses.
Did any you know that mycoplama can cause AIDS? It doesn’t stop there, in otherwise healthy people, it can also cause other diseases like depression, lack of concentration, unexplained chronic fatigue, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune diseases, organ damage/failure, heart disease, and possibly among other things, cancer. Well, I’m pretty sure the CDC isn’t going to tell you this for a few more years.
In the mean time, here are some sources (to name a few):
Mycoplasma researchers:
http://www.shasta.com/cybermom/asimple.htm
Mycoplasma fermentans:
http://www.all-natural.com/part-6ab.html
Some symptoms: http://www.digitalnaturopath.com/cond/C670329.html
Mark Jaquith
Jul 12, 2006
Sounds incredibly irresponsible, considering that there is no scientifically proven link between HIV and AIDS, and even if there were, there is no test for HIV because HIV has never been properly isolated. All they can test for is antibodies… antibodies that may be associated with this virus they’ve never properly isolated. AIDS diagnosis is based on a positive HIV test and certain non-AIDS-specific symptoms. In fact, there are no symptoms of AIDS that are specific to AIDS. Everyone on this earth has had one or more AIDS symptoms in their life. The vast majority of people who “test positive” for HIV are perfectly healthy, and can (and do) life full lives. The main reason that an HIV diagnosis kills people is that they get prescribed poison… unethical drugs that kill you faster than they kill any alleged virus you may have. And if you have a kid who tests positive, and you refuse to kill them with this poison, they’ll take your kid away from you and force feed them the stuff.
And even if you can ignore all that, and want to put blind faith in a test based on circular logic, consider that even when judged against themselves, HIV tests are imprecise. I knew someone who gave blood, then got a letter stating that they were HIV positive. A few weeks later he got another letter, saying that they ran the test again and that it was negative. Oops. Of course, no amount of followup letters could take back the phone calls he made to stunned friends and family.
It’s junk science, politicized, hyped, hysterically wanked on by the media vultures, and well funded by grinning assholes who want to look like they’re making a difference. Billions of dollars are spend on studies that publish vastly conflicting information, but the scientists keep on cashing the checks, because smallpox research sure isn’t paying the bills anymore, and the ignorant masses keep on clapping, because, well, they’re too “caring” to dare question someone who claims to be saving the lives that they’re actually destroying.
So no, I don’t want a damn “HIV test” any more than I want to get my freakin’ thetons measured by Tom Cruise or I want to use crystal therapy to cleanse me of my demons.
Tune in next week for “why you don’t have to worry about bird flu unless you sodomize diseased Chinese chicken corpses, put them in a blender, and take them intravenously.”
Mark
Oct 20, 2006
This is all complete nonsense.
I agree with the 2nd comment above. I have AIDS caused by mycoplasma, I also have family who have a range of autoimmune problems (aquired after my own) and are getting sick quick. The CDC can go on deluding itself that HIV does some thing that makes you ill, it can test the whole damn world but it won’t stop AIDS or find a cure. That is because HIV does not directly cause AIDS.
I have to contend with Doctors thinking I am mad, and wondering why my immune system is mysteriously dismantling itself, when simple antibiotics could give me my life back. People should not be worried about HIV, and should be very worried about a disease that can be transmitted by nothing more than acough in the face or a sneeze. Condoms are useless in the fight to stop AIDS.
Cal Crilly
Oct 24, 2006
If it happens they will find HIV everywhere and discover is has nothing to do with AIDS anyway, the courts will get clogged.
Why Retroviruses Appear in AIDS, Cancer and Autoimmune Diseases
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=42860328&blogID=126557457&MyToken=81e83641-da1f-47ea-a939-1e75182c78d5
Might be of interest?
Lauren
Nov 25, 2006
A real good initiative by CDC… I hope it materialse…. This will be great help to makind.
maria
Apr 16, 2007
I goot tested for AIDS without my consent for an operation, with the excuse that it is routine…I am furious!!! i broke off all relations with the HMO, because it is the only way I can be sure they don´t do it again.