June 27 is National HIV Testing Day – an opportunity to remind everyone it is easier than ever to know your HIV status.
Since December 2018, when people come in to Interior Health emergency departments and require diagnostic blood work, an HIV test may be included.
Provincial testing guidelines encourage primary care providers to know the HIV status of all patients, not only those deemed at risk. The guidelines also advise that when people are sick, an HIV test should be included as part of blood work to determine a diagnosis, regardless of an individual’s HIV risk factors.
Over the last five years, Interior Health has implemented STOP HIV/AIDS, a provincial program to expand access to earlier HIV testing and provide support for individuals to start and sustain HIV medication. When people are consistently taking HIV medications their viral load drops to an undetectable level, protecting their health by preventing progression to AIDS and AIDS related premature deaths, and stopping transmission of the virus to someone else.
“Routine HIV testing in the emergency department is one of the latest tools being used in Interior Health to end the HIV epidemic. Routine testing at a point-of-contact in the health-care system is targeted to detect those 15 per cent of HIV-positive individuals who are unaware of their HIV status,” says Dr. Michael Murphy, medical coordinator for the STOP HIV/AIDS program in Interior Health. “I have personally treated patients who were unaware they were HIV positive and were diagnosed through testing in the emergency department.”