CDC Suggests HIV Testing on Everyone
The CDC wants all Americans between the ages of 13-64 to be tested at least once for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
"Most HIV is transmitted by the 25 percent of infected people who do not even realize they are infected," Fenton said. "We need to dramatically expand access to HIV testing by making it a routine aspect of clinical care." Kevin Fenton, MD, PhD is the new director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. Read the whole story from FoxNews here.
posted by Anna Venger @ 2:39 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I have to say I have a big problem with this, not because it is not prudent to test everyone, but because of the cost.
I have two barely researched conditions through no fault of my own, and can expect little help toward curing them beyond what individual doctors believe might work. In this country, HIV has to be in nearly all cases, a preventable disease. Of course there are kids born with it and the like, but I can guarantee that I will not get HIV by acting responsibly. Why does HIV get so much more attention than so many other illnesses that kill more people and have no known method of prevention?
In an ideal world with unlimited money, test everyone. In the world we live in, if this testing can help us find ways to curb the epidemic in Africa, perhaps it is worth it on that level, but if we are just talking about the US here, there are many better places we could be spending our research and treatment dollars.
Yeah, you're right. The things that get money are the scary things or the conditions that get the most support from special interest groups. It isn't fair. Maybe the CDC fears that the American public no longer has any self control and that we will become like so many places in Africa that are being decimated by the disease, leaving children orphans and/or diseased themselves. Crazy when it is almost 100% preventable.
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