RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 HIV testing for acute medical admissions: evaluation of a pilot study in Leicester, England
JF Sexually Transmitted Infections
JO Sex Transm Infect
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 308
OP 310
DO 10.1136/sextrans-2011-050401
VO 89
IS 4
A1 Adrian Palfreeman
A1 Farai Nyatsanza
A1 Helen Farn
A1 Graham McKinnon
A1 Paul Schober
A1 Paul McNally
YR 2013
UL http://sti.bmj.com/content/89/4/308.abstract
AB Objectives The 2008 UK National Guidelines for HIV testing recommended HIV testing should be offered to all general medical admissions aged 16–60 years in high prevalence areas, and that this should be evaluated to ensure this was effective in diagnosing previously undiagnosed HIV. Methods HIV testing was introduced as a routine test for all patients admitted to the acute medical admissions unit, comparisons were made between the testing rates before, during and after this intervention. Results The pilot was initiated in August 2009. Prior to the pilot the unit was carrying out 15 tests per month. However, when the pilot was introduced 82 tests were being carried out per month with a total of 10 new diagnoses since the start of the pilot. The proportion of patients tested versus those eligible for testing remained low varying between 6% and 22% month by month. 10 patients we found to be HIV positive with a prevalence of approximately 1%, 10 fold higher than the cut off for cost effectiveness used in the guidelines. Conclusions Overall the pilot showed that HIV testing could be delivered without the use of extra resources and is acceptable to patients.