Texas bill to make HIV screening part of routine care would help efforts to curb virus

Mar 5 2009

"More than two years after" CDC "recommended routine HIV screening, two state lawmakers" in Texas have proposed a bill to align the state with the federal recommendations, a Lubbock Avalanche-Journal editorial says.

It adds that between 2003 and 2007, "more than one-fourth of Texans with HIV were diagnosed late in the course of the disease and were diagnosed with AIDS within a month." According to Ed Sherwood, chair of the Texas Medical Association Committee on Infectious Diseases, making HIV tests a part of routine care "would help avoid situations where patients assume they couldn't be infected and decide not to get tested," the editorial says. In addition, if the legislation "passes, it will be a model for other states," according to bill sponsor Sen. Rodney Ellis (D), the editorial says, adding, "California and Illinois are the only other states to pass HIV screening legislation, but not as comprehensive."

The state "already has legislation requiring inmates in Texas prisons to be tested for HIV when they enter and leave the system," according to the editorial. It adds that state law "also requires doctors to offer HIV screening at checkups for pregnant" women. The editorial concludes that the bill is a "good idea ... as long as people can opt out" (Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 3/4).