HIV Infection: Point-of-Care Testing

recommended strategies to prevent new infections with the HIV.1 There are 4 components to this initiative: (1) incor-porate HIV testing as part of routine medical care, (2) im-plement new testing strategies that take place outside of traditional medical settings, (3) prevent new infections in partners of people infected with HIV, and (4) decrease cur-rent rates of vertical transmission. These new recommenda-tions were prompted by evidence that the incidence of HIV infection is increasing in certain populations and that the rates of mortality attributable to AIDS have failed to decrease since 1998, while ≥25 % of the estimated 900 000 people liv-ing with HIV in the US do not know they are infected.1-3 According to the CDC, approximately one-third of pa-tients who test positive for HIV by traditional testing methods return to learn their test results.1 Among groups considered to be at high risk, barriers for not returning to receive test re-sults include inconvenience, fear of learning the results, fear of discrimination, costs associated with testing, and not wanting to have more blood drawn.4 Use of a rapid HIV test has been shown to dramatically increase the number of patients who receive their results. Kassler et al.5 compared the rates of receipt of both rapid and standard HIV test re-sults in 2 test settings. Receipt rates increased 210 % i