HIV Testing and Privacy Laws

Reply to Sartin et al.

“…Sir-We appreciate the comments by Sartin et al [1] on our article [2] encouraging routine HIV testing. For HIV testing to become a routine part of medical care, procedural barriers, including signed informed consent and pretest counseling, need to be reexamined.…”

“…Now, with widespread availability of potent antiretrovirals, pretest requirements need to be minimized to increase the number of individuals being offered HIV tests. As noted by Sartin et al [1], there are already new federal policies in effect to protect patients' private health information.…”

“…We advocate, in concert with Sartin et al [1], a reevaluation of HIV testing pol-icies and procedures in order to eliminate barriers and obstacles to routine HIV testing. The only way to reduce the number of individuals who are unaware of their HIV-infection status is to increase the number of HIV tests being offered.…”

“…Sir-We read with interest the article by Hawkey et al [1]. They report that paradoxical upgrading reactions (PUR) to antituberculous treatment occurred in 23% of non-HIV-infected patients.…”

“…In contrast with previous studies [2][3][4][5], Hawkey et al [1] did not find any evidence of a beneficial effect and questioned the effectiveness of corticosteroids to treat PUR. We think that their analysis could be biased by their definition of PUR, by the different use of steroids depending upon the severity of disease, and by the difficulties involved in the follow-up of the evolution of PUR by means of medical charts.…”