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- CDC Prevention News
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- INDIA: Supporting Patient Adherence to Antiretrovirals Using Mobile Phone Reminders: Patient Responses from South India
- NEW YORK: School Plans Condom Giveaway for Prom
- MISSISSIPPI: Madison Co. Students to Get Abstinence-Only Sex Ed
- TENNESSEE: Event Aims to Demystify Sex: Teens Get Chance to Learn, Question
- CALIFORNIA: API Wellness Boasts Broad Scope
- CALIFORNIA: Health Officials Eye Design Ideas for Condom Wrapper
- CALIFORNIA: Judge Denies Calif. TB Patient's Release Request
- NEW YORK: AIDS Walk Draws 45,000, Raises $6 Million
- CDC Prevention Information
- New Funding Opportunity Announcement: PS12-1211 Enhancing HIV Mobilization among Organizations Serving Gay, Bisexual and other Men Who Have Sex with Men
- Updated Slide Set: HIV Surveillance in Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM)
- Updated Fact Sheet: HIV among Gay and Bisexual Men
- Meeting Summary: 2012 Consultation on Revision of the HIV Surveillance Case Definition
- DHAP Annual Report: Accelerating Progress, Investing for Impact
- New Web page: Behavioral and Clinical Surveillance Branch
- Expanded HIV Testing and African Americans
- Updated Slide Set: HIV Surveillance in Women (through 2010)
- MMWR: HIV, Other STD, and Pregnancy Prevention Education in Public Secondary Schools — 45 States, 2008–2010
- New Tool Kit: Evaluation Toolkit: Patient and Provider Perspectives about Routine HIV Screening in Health Care Settings
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- Daily HIV/AIDS from aegis
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I am a local Atlanta physician employed by Emory Healthcare and the VA Medical Center. I have been concerned for some time about the issue of HIV in the state and beyond. Last year, the CDC introduced new recommendations for testing patients with HIV. Among them, they suggested that special consent forms, long required in most states, be eliminated. According to the CDC, these consent forms have become a barrier to testing.
I have seen many situations in which my colleagues have not tested individuals who deserved screening. I suspect that the administrative hassle of the the consent forms and the expectation of lengthy pre-test counseling reduces our overall screening rate. Moreover, while most patients do agree to be screened when appropriately counseled, many refuse when they see another form that they have to sign. They are scared, and more paperwork with confusing language scares them even more.
In California, I am aware that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has been involved in efforts to eliminate the need for HIV consent forms in the state legislature. Last week, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), California researchers showed how eliminating the special consent forms in one San Francisco hosptial increased HIV detection rates by 30%.
I have been working on the issue at the state and federal level (for the VA). This is an issue that is important to me, but I feel like I am working alone. I have an email from the Infectious Disease Society of America indicating their support. I have the verbal support of legislators. I even got to meet with Senator Ted Kennedy’s health policy aide when I was in Washington last week. I spoke Kennedy’s aide for an hour on 3-9-07. Everyone is positive when I speak with them or express my concern, but I am not seeing much action. And I realize how little I can do as one person.
Can anyone in Georgia help? Are there AIDS advocacy organizations interested in this issue in Georgia (and for the VA system, in Massachussetts)? The Kennedy aide recommended that I get 1,000 faxes sent to his office in Boston or Washington to really get Kennedy caring abour HIV screening for America’s veterans. Meanwhile in Georgia, a law is being considered that would eliminate the special HIV consent forms for pregnant women, not for the general population. I am trying to get the legislators to reconsider.
If we screen more patients, and make it easier for providers to test people, we can help slow the spread of HIV. People do change their behavior when they know they have HIV. Our problem is that one in four people who have HIV don’t know that they have it. Even though this is an administrative issue, if we make testing as easy as possible from an administrative point of view, we can decrease our costs in the future. We can help save money and lives in the future by testing more people today.
I think this is important because it is a cheap, and easy way to lower HIV transmission rates. It would actually save money in paper costs, and identifying patients with HIV early can help prevent costly complications and diseases associated with AIDS. A remarkable number of patients in our hospitals have AIDS. Reducing that burden could help lower costs for our healthcare system.
Contact your legislator! Ask them to get rid of these consent forms to help save the lives of Georgians. Ask them for “verbal consent” and verbal opt-out screening. Ask our legislature to give Georgia a chance to reduce the burden of HIV in our community. And if you can make the same request of our Senators and your representative in Congress, then we are really getting somewhere for America’s veterans, too!
Thank you for your help,
Elad Sharon, MD
Emory University School of Medicine
Atlanta, Georgia
I am posting this here now so that folks can read it and respond. I will be moving it to the main page in the near future as it is part of a post I have been working up in my head around the issue.
As a note…..I have been doing this work for a long time and agree that making testing easier to get is a worthy goal of prevention.
But I am worried that we depend too much on testing as the only preventive measure.
Testing alone does not prevent HIV.
The logic behind the pre and post counseling is it provides a chance to get a message to those who are participating in risky behaviors the right information so they can make better decisions and not become exposed to HIV in the future.
It is a great thing to get more people tested, but if they walk away with a negative test and do not know how to protect themselves in the future, then the test means nothing as soon as they hit the sidewalk.
Some things that have to be addressed in HIV prevention include HIV education, addressing stigma, poverty, racism, and access to health care to name a few things.
I am not disagreeing with this post, just adding my two cents.
HIV/AIDS has changed social thinking in America. However, the true Sociological impact of this dreaded disease has become a rather boring subject to the general public. For those with the disease it is a war we fight every day of our lives. Recent changes in medications that physicians can prescribe has caused sky rocketing cost for the patient, while making a fortune for a new industry; Pain Clinics. I have lived with inoperable pain for 15 years and the only relief is a strong pain medication. But now my HIV physician can’t write it any longer because of DEA involvement in medicine. We have too many irons in the fire folks. Frankly speaking the DEA needs to keep to its original purpose and stop tampering with health care via using unrelated data to push their private party goals, to create an unnecessary specialist, when a Neurologist can advise your HIV or G.P. in this issue far better than a physician who has no time to review your records or to evaluate your level of pain, because time is money and they use a standard set forth by the insurance companies whom they serve. This is also the reason why HIV testing is the way it is. Lawyers have gotten too involved in every aspect of our daily lives. And so have the lawmakers in regard to health care. Leave it to the Doctors not the special interest groups folks. Thank you for this opportunity to speak my mind. Because I am a man 57, living with HIV and multiple health issues and it is becoming more and more difficult to receive the health care I had just 3 years ago, due to the involvement of new laws to make the rich and powerful even more rich and powerful. It is a sad truth but I challenge all Georgians to get involved and to start asking questions to your lawmakers before it is too late. Already more people are losing everything they have worked their entire lives for due to sky-rocketing health costs. And the answer is simple, because the system is designed to make money and we are the poor saps who suffer as a result of that truth. My fellow Georgians our state leads the nation in poor health care and uneducated folks can’t make a contribution because they are clueless as to what is going on in their own state. Frankly people don’t want to know the truth because it takes away from their distractions; like spending money for things they don’t really need. Fear leads to spending in America and that is how the “powers that be” trick us all into not knowing what is going on, until it is too late.
New to Valdosta, have been looking for a support group in south Ga.