WHEN IS A BLOOD TEST FOR HIV RECOMMENDED?
The HIV test results can have a major impact on the psychological status of the person tested, family, relationship with other members, employment opportunities, etc. This is why HIV testing should not be done without informed consent. This means that the person being tested should understand the consequences of the test results. It is also important to keep the test results confidential. In India, scientifically tested treatment options for people with HIV infection are limited. This is mainly because of the excessive cost. Also, none of the currently available treatment options can cure HIV infection. This is why HIV testing is not routinely recommended even for those who are at a higher risk of getting infected.HIV testing without consent is done for all blood samples collected for transfusion and during sentinel surveillance. The test results are however confidential and anonymous. Testing the blood for HIV without informed consent is ethically wrong and is strongly discouraged by the Government of India and all agencies involved in prevention and control of HIV/ AIDS in India.It is important to remember that the HIV test does not provide any information to the present state of the person tested. It also does not provide information on the source of infection or whether the infection has been transmitted to others or not.Since it is not possible to identify people with HIV infection by just looking or interacting with them, and HIV testing is not likely to alter the course of the infection, if any, preventive measures are the only current hope for controlling HIV/AIDS.*17\288\2*
Random Posts
. This entry was posted on Sunday, May 1st, 2011 at 3:45 am and is filed under HIV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
XHTML: You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>It may take some time for your comment to appear, it is not necessary to submit it again.