The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns people with HIV are being diagnosed too late in the disease process. Plus, not enough is being done to screen high school students.
A new study finds nearly 40-percent of HIV positive patients progress to AIDS within one year of diagnosis. 45 percent have AIDS within three years. Experts say it generally takes ten years to progress from HIV to AIDS, so this study shows many people have the disease and are waiting too long to be tested.
Compared to whites, racial/ethnic minorities were more likely to be diagnosed late. Also, higher
percentages of people of all other racial/ethnic groups progressed to AIDS within three years.
In a separate study, researchers at the CDC found 22 percent of high school students who ever had sex had been tested for HIV. The older the student, and their race, played a role in their testing. African Americans were more likely to be screened.
The percentage of those tested was higher among female students (14.8 percent) than male students
(11.1 percent), higher among black students (22.4 percent) than white (12.7 percent) or Hispanic students (10.7 percent), and highest among students who first had sex before age 13 (30.7 percent).
Saturday, June 27, is National HIV Testing Day.
