AIDS Healthcare Foundation Praises Commends California Assembly for Swift, Unanimous Passage of HIV Testing Bill (AB 682)
SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the US’ largest provider of HIV/AIDS healthcare, prevention and education, and operator of the largest non-government HIV testing program in California which conducts more than 15,000 HIV tests annually, today lauded the California Assembly for its unanimous vote (74/0) in favor of Assembly Bill 682, California’s Routine HIV Screening Bill, which will now move on to the Senate.
The bi-partisan bill, jointly authored by Assembly Members Patty Berg, Bonnie Garcia and Jared Huffman and co-sponsored by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the California Medical Association (CMA) and the Health Officers Association of California, streamlines the HIV testing process, so that medical providers can identify Californians who are unaware of their HIV- positive status and bring them into care and treatment, while sustaining the fundamental voluntary nature of HIV screening. The bill removes barriers currently impeding California’s ability to conform to recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations to implement routine HIV screening of the general population from ages 13 to 64.
“We thank the Assembly for recognizing the urgent public health need to ensure that HIV screening becomes truly routine and commend the Assembly for its swift passage of this crucial legislation,” said Whitney Engeran III, Director of Prevention and Testing for AHF. “Too many people are still learning of their HIV status when they present themselves to a healthcare provider due to an illness, often too late to fully benefit from treatment. In line with recent CDC recommendations to make HIV screening a routine part of medical care, AB 682 will ensure more Californians get access to care and treatment and interrupt their unwitting exposure of others.”
Current California state law, enacted early in the epidemic, requires informed or written informed consent, depending on the setting, before an HIV test can be conducted. This law makes it difficult for medical providers to routinely screen patients for HIV infection and contributes to the fact that nearly 40,000 Californians do not know that they are HIV positive and, hence, are not getting treatment and are unknowingly exposing others. AB 682 will change California law from informed consent to simple consent, with a requirement that a patient be given information about the test and be informed that he or she can decline the test. It will also streamline some of the procedures a physician must follow in testing a pregnant woman.
“The sole purpose of my bill is to prevent the spread of AIDS,” said Assemblywoman Patty Berg (D, Eureka). “With all the medical treatments available, knowing your HIV status will help prolong your life.”
“AB 682 strikes an important balance between protecting the rights of individual patients while removing outdated barriers to routine screening that will help us find those with undiagnosed HIV infection,” said Anmol S. Mahal, MD, President of the California Medical Association, a co-sponsor of the bill. “The State Assembly should be strongly commended for overwhelmingly passing this practical, life-saving legislation.”
On September 22, 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its “Revised Recommendations for HIV Testing.” In that document, the CDC strongly urged routine HIV screening of all persons in a health care setting. AB 682 will serve to modernize California law and enable the state to meet CDC editions.
A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) “Association Between Rates of HIV Testing and Elimination of Written Consents in San Francisco,” (March 14, 2007-Vol. 297, No. 10) revealed the potential for increased HIV testing rates when certain barriers to testing are removed. The research letter, (authored by Jeff D. Klausner, MD, MPH and Mitchell H. Katz, MD of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFPHD), and Nicola M. Zetola, MD, Barbara Haller, MD, PhD and Patricia Nassos, PhD of the University of California, San Francisco) examined the rate of HIV testing after the San Francisco Department of Public Health, in May 2006, replaced written consent with verbal consent for testing through its facilities. The results show a major increase in the rate of HIV testing after this move to streamline the testing process. For example, San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center went from diagnosing 20 cases of HIV a month to over 30.
According to the CDC, “HIV infection is consistent with all generally accepted criteria that justify screening: HIV infection is a serious health disorder that can be diagnosed before symptoms develop; HIV can be detected by reliable, inexpensive, and noninvasive screening tests; Infected patients have years of life to gain if treatment is initiated early, before symptoms develop; and the costs of screening are reasonable in relation to the anticipated benefits.”
HIV screening is on a par with other screening that can lead to prevention, treatment and survival. Physicians routinely screen for cholesterol, diabetes, and breast cancer because intervention saves lives.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
CONTACT: Ged Kenslea, Communications Director, +1-323-860-5225, work,+1-323-791-5526, mobile, gedk@aidshealth.org, or Lori Yeghiayan, AssociateCommunications Director, +1-323-860-5227, work, +1-323-377-4312, mobile,lori.yeghiayan@aidshealth.org, both of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)
Web site: http://www.aidshealth.org/