MIAMI, Sept 21, 2006 (AFP) - A US government agency on Thursday recommended routine screening for the virus that causes AIDS for all patients aged 13 to 64, instead of focusing on target areas and high-risk groups.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its new recommendations for health-care providers were designed to make voluntary HIV screening a routine part of medical care to reach an estimated 250,000 Americans infected with HIV but unaware of their contagious condition.

"We urgently need new approaches to reach the quarter-million Americans with HIV who do not realize they are infected," CDC director Julie Gerberding said in a statement.

"People with HIV have a right to know that they are infected so they can seek treatment and take steps to protect themselves and their partners," she said.

The previous CDC guidelines recommended screening for patients seeking health care in areas with a high incidence of AIDS and for patients in high-risk groups, such as intravenous illicit drug users and homosexuals.

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