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Research Highlights
Study Urges Wider Screening for HIV
February 10, 2005
Routine voluntary screening for HIV is as cost-effective as other common preventive tests, such as
mammograms and colonoscopies, and should be adopted far more widely by U.S. hospitals and clinics,
according to a study led by researchers from VA and Duke and Stanford universities. Using a
sophisticated software model that took into account all the theoretical costs and benefits of HIV
screening, the researchers determined that routine testing for HIV may be cost-effective even in
healthcare settings where as few as 1 in 2,000 patients carries the virus unknowingly. Current
guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend routine HIV screening
only for higher-risk populations, in which the estimated prevalence is closer to 1 in 100 patients.
For more details see the press release. (New England Journal of Medicine, 2/10/05)
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