Doctors, public support HIV test

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More than 60 percent of U.S. doctors and the public say mandatory, federally funded HIV testing would improve the overall health of Americans, according to a national survey that polled the groups separately.

"Physicians are a distinct group who share similar education, income and status in society, and it is interesting that their views reflect those of the general public on serious and evolving health care issues such as this one," said Glenn Kessler, co-founder of HCD Research, which conducted the poll.

HCD, a marketing and communications research firm based in New Jersey, surveyed 864 physicians and 1,339 non-physicians Saturday to Monday.

Since the AIDS epidemic emerged in the United States in the 1980s, the federal government has recommended HIV testing only in big cities where AIDS rates exceed 1 percent, and among those in high-risk groups.

According to the survey, 64 percent of physicians polled and 63 percent of non-physicians said they felt that required HIV screening financed by the federal government "would improve the overall health of the U.S. population."

Respondents in both groups identified employment issues and difficulty obtaining life insurance as the most serious social concerns that would be associated with such a policy. But 60 percent of the public and 59 percent of doctors said health care benefits would outweigh the social implications.

About 40,000 new cases of HIV are diagnosed in the United States yearly. An estimated 950,000 Americans are infected with the AIDS virus, but 280,000 don't know it, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

David Williams, policy director for Citizens Against Government Waste, said he is not impressed that more than six out of 10 doctors and members of the public favor mandatory, federally financed HIV screening.

"Those 60 percent should go out and get tested and pay for it themselves," he said. "Instead of testing everyone, people need to know how not to get infected with HIV. They need to practice safe sex."

The findings parallel those in two reports published in last week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that recommended Americans be tested routinely for HIV, much as they are for cancer and other diseases.

Those reports, based on two large federally supported studies, concluded that the cost of routinely screening and treating all adults for HIV would be outweighed by a decrease in new infections and the ability to start patients on anti-retroviral therapies earlier.

One of the studies predicts that routine, one-time HIV testing would reduce new infections by 20 percent yearly, and that every HIV-infected patient identified would gain an average of 1.5 years of life. A second study concluded that one-time testing would be cost-effective, even for those at the lowest risk for HIV.