How to recognize adolescents at risk for HIV infection

HIV infection is a growing problem for primary care physicians in that the coming of adolescents to clinics for primary care may not clearly demark members of a high-risk group. Therefore, clinicians need to be familiar with the risk categories and question the patients as to high-risk activities in order to determine their risk for HIV infection. Adolescents may be at a higher risk for HIV, but may not bear manifestations of infection with HIV infection until later. Therefore, it would behoove clinicians to establish the serologic status of adolescents at risk in a timely fashion in order to offer counseling and manage the protean manifestations of HIV-related disease that may occur. Counseling must also emphasize the importance of curtailing the high-risk activity so as to curb the spread of the infection.