In 2011, the AAP published its HIV screening guidelines (128/5/1023). The guidelines recommended HIV testing for all sexually active adolescents, and for all adolescents at least once by age 16-18 if the prevalence in a community is greater than 0.1%. So in the setting of those guidelines, how are we doing? Not so well as per an article being released this week by Van Handel et al. (10.1542/peds.2015-2700). The authors studied results from two large national data bases to assess HIV testing prevalence, and the results are disappointing to say the least—both for high school students and young adults. The authors further stratify their results to show gender and race/ethnicity statistics –some of which may surprise and even if not, this article is an important one to think about.
How are you doing in your practice in terms of HIV screening? Are your rates better than those in this study and if so, what kinds of things are you doing to insure high HIV screening rates when indicated. We welcome your suggestions and comments by responding to this blog, posting a comment on our Gateway website, and/or using our Facebook or Twitter pages.
