HIV Test Recommended When Specific Indicator Diseases Present

Heterosexuals are at particular risk of carrying the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) for so long that they remain undiagnosed until their immune system starts to fail and they become ill.

It has recently been revealed that a number of diseases, including herpes zoster and certain forms of cancer, should be on the list of indicators for having HIV, and thus serve to prompt health care professionals to suggest an HIV-test to their patients.

An international study under the leadership of the HIV in Europe initiative (Copenhagen, Denmark) and under the auspices of the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) will debate how to disseminate knowledge of the new HIV indicator diseases to non-HIV doctors and health care professionals across Europe. The HIV in Europe initiative took up this challenge in 2009 and started the study HIV Indicator Diseases Across Europe (HIDES), which investigated eight new diseases and how often they proved to be signs of an undiagnosed HIV infection among the 3,588 patients in the study.

The sooner HIV-infected individuals receive a diagnosis and start therapy, the greater are their chances of survival and their quality of life. Investigators have shown that therapy lowers the risk of passing the infection on to someone else. Half of all people living with HIV are diagnosed very late in the course of their chronic HIV infection. People infected through heterosexual transmission now comprise 42 % of these late presenters, as a study of 90,000 Europeans tested HIV positive since 2000 shows. The Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS, known as UNAIDS, has estimated that 2.5 million Europeans carry an HIV infection, and as many as 900,000 of these, are still unaware of this. Inside the European Union, the numbers are 800,000 infected with 250,000 undiagnosed.

Jens Lundgren, MD, the chief physician and director of the Copenhagen HIV Program, said " We could see that if an adult had a sexually transmitted infection, malignant lymphoma, cervical or anal cancer/dysplasia, herpes zoster, hepatitis B or C, ongoing mononucleosis-like illness, inexplicable, persistent decline in the number of circulating white blood cells, or seborrheic dermatitis/exanthema, the risk of HIV infection was so high that it would be cost-effectiveness for society to routinely offer them a test". He added, "The incidence of HIV is greater for these eight indicator diseases and they should encourage health care professionals to offer the patient an HIV test. Draft guidelines on how to ensure this throughout Europe are one of the topics we need to debate and decide on, before they can be implemented." The new results and guidelines are to be debated at a major international HIV conference in Copenhagen, Denmark on March 19-20, 2012.

Related Links:
HIV in Europe
University of Copenhagen