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.
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