A substantial proportion of people are diagnosed with HIV late in the course of their infection, when they are more immunosuppressed and treatments may have limited effectiveness, a new CDC study has found. Three years after being diagnosed with HIV, 45 percent of people had developed AIDS, according to CDC's analysis of data from 1996-2005 from 34 states with confidential name-based HIV/AIDS reporting.
The study showed that 38.3 percent of patients had progressed to AIDS within one year of their initial HIV diagnosis, and another 6.7 percent had an AIDS diagnosis in the next two years. Late testing was higher among older, minority, and male patients across transmission risk groups.
Three years after HIV diagnosis, 63.2 percent of those age 60 and above had an AIDS diagnosis, as did 57.5 percent of those ages 50-59. Compared with whites, an AIDS diagnosis within three years of HIV diagnosis was more likely among patients who were Asian (50.4 percent), Hispanic or Latino (48.4 percent), American Indian or Alaskan Native (47.2 percent), black or African-American (46.1 percent).
A greater proportion of male injection drug users had an AIDS diagnosis at three years (49.9 percent) than female IDUs (41.9 percent). Many males with high-risk heterosexual contact are also testing late, with 50.2 percent having AIDS three years after HIV diagnosis. Among those for whom HIV transmission risk was male-to-male sexual contact, 47.8 percent had AIDS three years after HIV diagnosis.
"To reduce late testing for HIV infection, health care providers should fully implement both routine and risk-based HIV testing, and local public health officials should continue educational efforts regarding the importance of early HIV testing," the CDC researchers concluded.
The full report, "Late HIV Testing - 34 States, 1996-2005," was published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (2009;58(24):661-665).
06/25/09
UNITED STATES: HIV Testing in United States Often Performed Late
Source: Reuters Health; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention