HIV testing in Acute Care

Readers may be aware of the need to improve uptake of HIV testing in health care-settings to reduce the number of individuals with undiagnosed infection who later present with advanced disease. Late presentation of HIV infection is associated with a poorer immune response to antiretroviral therapy, an increased morbidity and mortality with a resultant higher cost burden to health-care services. Individuals with undiagnosed HIV infection who inadvertently transmit their infection to others are thought to be responsible for more than half of new HIV infections in the USA.