News

Washington Post

“Two years after the federal government recommended that patients in emergency rooms and doctors’ offices be routinely tested for HIV, the advice is generally not being followed, according to a large number of studies presented this week at a conference in Arlington.

“Only about 5 percent of patients with evidence of serious illness are being routinely tested in hospital emergency rooms for the virus that causes AIDS, said Veronica Miller, director of the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research, an independent public-private partnership based at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.

“HIV is a life-threatening disease that is so grossly underdiagnosed and undertreated in this country,” Miller said in a briefing on the two-day Summit on HIV Testing.”

Source:  Washington Post, November 21, 2008