One Third of HIV Cases Still Diagnosed Late in Spite of the Numbers of Screenings in the US
In spite of the numerous numbers of people that are now being tested for HIV in the United States, there is still an alarming number of the population who are unaware of their HIV status. It is estimated that there are over 200,000 infected people who do not know that they are infected with the disease. And out of this number, one third of them only discover their condition later on when treatment is least effective. According to a CDC report, increased testings should be done especially in areas and populations where the virus is expected to be more rampant.
It was reported that HIV or the Human Immunodeficiency Virus takes the most part of the health care expenditure in the country. Aside from that, this is also the cause of most of the country’s mortality. Although treatment can be effective, this needs to be done on the earlier course of the disease since it becomes less effective as the virus sets in. This is the very reason why early detection should be the best way to effective treatment. Cases detected early also help reduce further human to human transmissions.
According to the National Health Survey done from the years 2001-2009, there was a 5% increase on the infected patients that fell within the 18-64 age bracket from the data in 2001-2006 to the data in 2009. The rate of the late diagnosed cases fell from 37% to 32.3% during the years 2001-2004 and 2007. 51.2% of the entire diagnosed patients were African Americans in the year 2008. And finally, 55% of the transmissions were from males who claimed to be non-injecting and to have no male to male contacts in the same year (2008).
The CDC now advices all health care providers to do screenings of adults in all age brackets. This should be done especially in areas where HIV prevalence is higher in the country.
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