Have you noticed something different lately at your doctors' visits?

Have you noticed something different lately at your doctors' visits? As of September 2006, the CDC recommends that doctors routinely test every patient for HIV, regardless of their risk, when they come in for a health care visit.

This is a change of policy for the CDC. Up until relatively recently, HIV testing was recommended only for people at high risk of disease, and extensive pre-test and post-test counseling was required to be included as part of standard procedure. The problem was that this didn't work. Testing only high-risk people misses many, if not the majority of, early HIV infections. It also needlessly increases the risk of infants being born with HIV since treatment during pregnancy is extremely effective at reducing transmission.

The new type of testing is known as "opt-out testing." In this form of testing, the test is given unless patients specifically refuse it. In general, opt-out testing has been found to be an effective way of increasing the number of people screened for disease when compared to opt-in procedures where individuals must request testing. People will still be asked if they want to be tested for HIV, but testing will no longer require separate written consent or counseling and will be presented as part of routine care.

As a result, although HIV testing will still be voluntary, far more people will end up undergoing testing. However, because this is a recommendation, and not a law, not all U.S. states are following the new guidelines.