Only one in 5 sexually active highschool students has been
tested for HIV, and young adults aren’t doing far better at sorting out their
standing, U.S. health officers report.
As a result, associate calculable fifty % of young Americans
infected with the virus that causes AIDS don’t recognize they need it, the
researchers found.
“We haven’t created the dent that we'd wish to have
created,” aforementioned study author Michelle Van Handel, a health mortal with
the division of HIV/AIDS hindrance at the U.S. Centers for malady management
and hindrance. In fact, she said, the HIV testing rate is truly lower among
those aged eighteen to twenty four than for older folks within the us.
Thanks to medical advances, HIV has evolved into a chronic
malady rather than a fatal one. however those that area unit infected should
take medications for his or her entire lives and face higher risk of varied
health issues as they age.
Young people — particularly blacks — area unit significantly
laborious hit by HIV. in step with the U.S. Centers for malady management and
hindrance, blacks accounted for concerning fifty seven % (7,000) of all new HIV
infections among youth in 2010, that area unit the most recent figures out
there. Hispanic/Latino youth accounted for twenty % (2,390) and white youth
accounted for twenty % (2,380).
Overall, young adults created up seventeen % of the U.S.
population in 2010 however quite 1 / 4 of all new HIV diagnoses, the agency
noted. Gay and bisexual young men area unit possibly to urge infected, however
twenty seven % of latest infections area unit in females and heterosexual
males.
For the new study, researchers examined the results of 2
U.S. surveys — one in all highschool students and one in all adults aged
eighteen to twenty four.
Among highschool students, the researchers found that twenty
two % of these who’d had sex rumored being tested for HIV. The survey for this
age bracket, that checked out a median of fourteen,500 students a year from
2005-2013, didn’t notice any modification in testing rates over that point.
Among highschool students, males (17 percent) were less
seemingly to own been tested than females (27 percent).
The rates were slightly higher among those aged eighteen to
twenty four. to determine testing therein age bracket, the study authors
checked out surveys from 2011-2013 with a median of nineteen,600 participants a
year. The researchers found that twenty seven % of males had been tested and
forty % of females had been tested. Young adult black females had associate
particularly high testing rate, at sixty % in 2013.
Why area unit the testing rates low? Van Handel
aforementioned potential reasons embody lack of access to health care and too
few health professionals UN agency realize — and follow — HIV-testing tips.
Those tips suggest testing for those aged thirteen to sixty four.
“Research has shown that adolescents area unit additional
seemingly to urge tested if their medical man recommends it,” she said.
High school students can also be cautious of obtaining
tested as a result of they worry their oldsters can conclude through their
health insurance underwriter, she said. Another hurdle, Handel aforementioned,
is that blood tests aren’t essentially routine for folks of highschool age.
Lisa Metsch, chair of the department of sociomedical
sciences at Columbia University’s carrier college of Public Health in ny town,
aforementioned artistic ways area unit required to spice up testing rates among
teens and young adults. Her analysis cluster, for instance, has explored HIV
testing at dental offices. High colleges and alternative places wherever teens
congregate area unit alternative potential venues for testing, she said.
Gregory Phillips II, a pursuit professor with the department
of medical social sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg college of
drugs in Chicago, united with Metsch.
“Incorporating HIV checking activities into college
activities — like having a mobile unit out there for HIV testing outside the
varsity on a daily basis — can normalize the activity and hopefully take away a
number of the stigma that continues to be around seeking a test,” Phillips
aforementioned.
