HIV Testing Rates Still Low Among Teens, Young Adults

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.