Revised Rules Could Increase Testing, Alert Those Infected

(AP) – More than 3,000 people in Washington are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and don’t know it, according to state health officials. New rules should change that, they say. “Our goal is to dramatically increase testing and make it more routine. To do that we needed to drastically revise the rules,” said Tom Locke chairman of the Washington State Board of Health. The old rules, adopted by the board in 1989, required doctors to give patients extensive information about the virus before every test, even if the patient had already received the information during previous tests. The new rules allow doctors to consider patient histories when they offer counseling, and local health agencies are now responsible for notifying the sex partners of patients who test positive. Previously, doctors who administered the test had to contact partners and many were uncomfortable with the task, so doctors often directed patients to health agencies for testing, said John Peppert, manager of the state Health Department’s HIV prevention program. “This isn’t a bad thing, but every time you add a step there will be less people going to get tested,” Peppert said. More than 15,000 cases of HIV and AIDS have been reported in Washington since the epidemic began in 1982. “Today the rate of new cases of infection is likely going up, but we can’t be certain unless people get tested,” Locke said.