WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (AFP) - US physicians in two government-funded studies said routine testing for AIDS for the entire US population would reduce the rate of infection and perhaps "influence the course of the epidemic."
The reports' findings, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, said the cost of testing all adults for AIDS and treating those found to be HIV positive would be more than offset by the fewer number of new AIDS cases and the advantages of early treatment.
"Given the availability of effective therapy and preventive measures, it is possible to improve care and perhaps influence the course of the epidemic through widespread, effective and cost-effective screening," said Dr. Samuel Bozzette in an introduction to the two studies.
After the initial outbreak of AIDS in the early 1980s, US health authorities recommended routine testing in large urban areas with rates of infection at more than one percent of the population, and in high-risk groups such as homosexuals and intravenous drug users.
"A failure to institute such screening at doctors' offices and clinics would be a critical disservice to patients with the AIDS virus and the future health of the nation," said Bozette, of the University of California and a member of the federal research group Rand Corp.
Dr. Robert Janssen, head of preventive systems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the CDC will examine the reports' recommendations over the next two years.
He also said the CDC had called for new, faster AIDS tests that will provide results of HIV infection in one-and-a-half hours, instead of the current one or two weeks.
One of the two studies, conducted by the universities of Stanford and Duke, indicated that if everybody in the United States tested for AIDS once a year, the rate of infection would drop by 21 percent.
It also showed that early HIV detection extends the life of those infected by 1.52 years thanks to the prompt treatment.
The second test, conducted by the universities of Yale and Harvard, showed that routine AIDS tests every three to five years would be cost-effective for the overall population, excluding low risk groups such as monogamous heterosexuals.
According to CDC estimates included in one of the studies, more than half the 40,000 new AIDS cases detected every year in the United States are people who did not know they were infected. They represent 280,000 of the 950,000 people currently infected in the country.
Treatment for AIDS costs at least 15,000 dollars per year per person, the CDC said.
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