US studies show the importance of HIV screening
At least 80,000 infections (and another 212,000 new infections) could be prevented from occurring in the next 20 years provided that every American would have expanded screening for the AIDS virus.
Such was the result of the study conducted by the researchers from Yale University in Connecticut and Stanford University in California.In fact, it is highly advocated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to implement testing every individual at least once for the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Sadly though, the program has received very little funds (or none at all).
Statistics have shown mortality of 600,000 American from AIDS and that 21% of more than a million infected individuals are not even aware of being infected due to lack of screening. The annual rate of 56,000 Americans acquiring the yet to be treatable virus is even at a very alarming rate.
The research from Yale and Stanford also revealed the possible prognosis of AIDS rate including the increase of roughly 1.23 million new HIV infections in a span of 20 years, of which 74% involves high-risk persons including gays, bisexuals, blacks and drug users that use syringe. Such was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
On a positive note, the combined approach of annual screening for the highest risk, screening everyone once in their lives, and treating 75% of those infected would prevent 17% of the infection. That’s more than 200,000 infections.
According to Stanford's Dr. Owens, the expanded screening and treatment is likely to wound up significant health turnover since it would help prevent a range of 15% to 20% new cases.
The approach of combining various methods to boost the result is essential when dealing with health upshot. With regards to the expenditure, it was deemed to be very cost efficient since the amount would only mount up to $26.9 billion in a span of two decades. That’s the same as $22,000 per quality-adjusted life year saved, an accepted measure that reflects both how long people live and their quality of life. Whereas doing the approach singly, trying to test everyone in the country once a year would be far too expensive, Long's team found -- $750,000 per quality-adjusted life year.
Another aspect that is being looked into is the possibility to do away with HIV in United States, of which it would prevent the occurrence of 24 percent of the new infections each year.
As of today, there is still no known cure for the AIDS virus. Only palliative cocktails of drugs for HIV are available. These cocktails help the patients manage the symptoms but not to the extent of killing the virus itself.
It is made known to the public how the virus is transmitted: through blood, semen and breast milk. As such, it is their prerogative to refrain, or at the very least minimize the likelihood of risky behaviors to reduce the risk of infecting other individuals.