HIV testing will be routine
Senate to analyze draft law AB682
La Opinion
Araceli Martínez Ortega
June 29, 2007

Friday, June 29, 2007 SACRAMENTO.— In California, the test to detect the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may very soon become a routine test in annual medical checkups.

In the future, it will no longer be necessary to make a written request for the test.
This will be possible if the governor signs the AB682, a bipartisan measure introduced by Patty Berg, Democrat assemblywoman of Eureka, and Bonnie García, Republican assemblywoman of Cathedral City, which has already been approved by the Assembly and is now being examined by the Senate.

The purpose of this initiative is for the routine HIV test to limit the rate of new infections and help people with HIV receive timely treatment.

Until this happens, this week the California Testing for Life campaign started as part of a national campaign to prevent AIDS proliferation. The objective is to create awareness for people to ask for the HIV test as a routine annual test.

García, who in the last three years has headed several legislative efforts to make the HIV test routine in medical offices, said that this year the measure will be approved because the Center for Disease Control already recommended it last year for patients age 13 to 64.

"And now we have the backup of the California Medical Association which we did not have before, because we did not have the recommendation of the Center for Disease Control", added García.

"The goal is to help educate people about the importance of the HIV test ", said Abner Mason, executive director of the AIDS Responsibility Project.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that there are between 250 thousand and 300 thousand Americans who do not know that they are infected with HIV. In California, about 40 thousand do not know they have it.

In addition, it is calculated that most new infections are caused by individuals who do not know that they are carriers and who are spreading the disease.

At a national level, Latinos represent 23% of the total AIDS cases and 25% of the total reported HIV cases.

In California, women make up 13% of the new cases.

It is calculated that there are 40 thousand Californians who do not know that they are HIV positive. If this trend continues, it is most likely that the people will realize that they have HIV when it is too late.

"The problem with late detection is that those whose HIV is detected in one year develop AIDS", stressed García.

HIV and AIDS have claimed the lives of more than 82 thousand Californians in the last 25 years.

Assemblywoman Berg said that, in this regard, ignorance means more HIV and more AIDS, so she urged all Californians to get tested and take control of their lives.