HIV-Testing Program Finds 18K New Cases

But more than 200K have infection without knowing it
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 24, 2011 9:38 AM CDT
HIV-Testing Program Finds 18K New Cases
A lab worker organizes blood samples to be tested for HIV.   (AP Photo/Luis Romero)

An estimated 240,000 people in America have HIV without knowing it, but that figure is dropping after three years of targeted testing among high-risk populations, the Washington Post reports. The $111 million program, carried out in ERs, venereal disease clinics, and drug-treatment centers around the US found 18,000 people with the illness. “This is a considerable boost to the nation’s health. Did it make a difference to America? I think it did,” said a top CDC official.

The program tested patients in the 25 cities and states with the highest infection rates and focused particularly on African-Americans, who account for about half of all new infections. The positive outcome of the program: Many more can get "treatment without which almost all would die,” said the CDC official. What’s more, those who know they have the illness are less likely to transmit it. (More HIV stories.)

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