Targeted HIV
testing more effective than broad screening

According to a study by the Johns Hopkins University, a testing program targeting the people most likely to be infected with HIV would be more effective than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended mass testing.

The university study, released Monday, proposes that directing testing and counseling services toward those at high risk could triple the rate of timely diagnosis and prevent four times as many new infections. The estimated cost of such a program would be about the same as that for the CDC's proposed mass testing of people ages 13-64: $864 million per year.

According to Reuters, the CDC's new testing strategy is expected to diagnose about 57,000 cases of HIV per year. The targeted approach, according to the Johns Hopkins study, could in that same time frame identify 188,000 out of approximately 300,000 people currently estimated to be living with undiagnosed HIV infections in the United States. (The Advocate)