In a formal committee opinion published in the August issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the college said obstetrician-gynecologists play an important role in promoting HIV screening for their patients under the recommendations by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The new proposed guidelines suggest that repeat HIV testing should be offered at least annually to women who use injection drugs, have sex partners who are injection drug users or are HIV-positive, exchange sex for drugs or money or have been diagnosed with another sexually transmitted disease in the previous year. It also included women who have had more than one sexual partner since their most recent HIV test, the college recommends.
Blacks and Hispanics account for 82 percent of new diagnoses of HIV among women, although they are only 24 percent of American women. Among African-American women, the rate of AIDS diagnosis is 23 times the rate for white women and four times the rate for Hispanic women, the committee said.
If widely accepted, the new recommendations would mean a shift in practice for many physicians, who now test only pregnant patients, those at high risk, or when a woman asked to be tested.
A combination of testing, education, and brief behavioral interventions can help reduce HIV infection rates among minority women, according to the ACOG committee.
