HIV Testing For Your Teen?
On World AIDS Day, December 1, the American College of Physicians issued a recommendation that could make your next visit to the pediatrician a bit of a jarring experience: Routine HIV testing for everyone over 13 years old. Every year, the organization estimates that 20,000 new HIV infections are caused by people who are infected with the virus but don’t know it. The idea behind the recommendation, which mirrors one made two years ago by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is to prevent new transmissions by diagnosing as many cases as possible.
Those considered “at risk” for HIV infection have shared injection drug needles, had unprotected sex with multiple partners, or had unprotected sex with anyone who falls into an at-risk category. Of course, parents don’t want to think it is possible that their child could have been exposed. Thinking of it as a test to detect an infection, rather than as a test to see whether your child used drugs or had sex, might help you over that hurdle. And keep in mind that doctors are urging even people not considered at risk to get tested. (That means you, too.) The test is simple and quick, can be performed during a routine exam, and might one day be as common as getting a flu shot, experts say.
– Christina Elston