Vancouver Coastal Health, Providence Health Care, and the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS have announced an expansion of HIV testing guidelines as part of the STOP HIV/AIDS pilot project.

Under the new guidelines, health care providers are encouraged to routinely offer an HIV test to individuals who meet any of the following criteria:

• Anyone who presents to acute or community care who has ever been sexually active and has not had an HIV test in the past year. 
• Individuals with a past history of sexually transmitted infection. 
• Anyone tested for or diagnosed with hepatitis C, any sexually transmitted infection, or tuberculosis.

These additions supplement existing guidelines based on the presence of HIV symptoms and provider awareness of a patient’s HIV risk factors. By moving away from a risk-based ap­proach to testing, the new guidelines will help diagnose infections in individuals outside currently recognized risk groups.

See the article on page 13 of this issue for details.