July 9, 2018 – Getting Tested

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Anchor lead: Recent free HIV testing underscores the need for all, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Do you know your HIV status? A recent day of free HIV testing provided to all comers by many  drugstores and clinics nationally brings awareness to the fact that everyone should be tested for HIV, even and perhaps especially those who don’t think they’re at risk for infection. Joseph Cofranscesco, an HIV expert at Johns Hopkins, comments.

Cofrancesco: The CDC has mentioned and all good practitioners have mentioned that basically everyone should be HIV tested. Certainly those at risk may know they’re at risk and are often regularly tested although fear sometimes prevents them. But there’s a whole group out there who don’t perceive to be at risk, who are. So basically everyone should get tested, this is the first part of what we call the treatment cascade. So first of all you need to know that you have an HIV infection.  :28

Distressingly, even in developed countries some groups are seeing an increased rate of HIV transmission, a development that threatens to undermine years of control and intervention in containing the virus. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.