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HIV testing rates are rising, but officials say more progress is needed

Category: HIV

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that increasing the number of individuals who seek HIV testing may be the most effective way to stop the spread of the disease. A new report from the agency suggests that their message may be getting through.

The report states that 82.9 million Americans received an HIV test in 2009. This is 11.4 million more than were tested in 2006. However, despite this dramatic increase, agency officials said that there is still much work that needs to be done.

The report shows that 45 percent of all U.S. adults were tested. This is still far below levels that the agency would like to see. For Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, this means making HIV testing more accessible to everyone.

"We need to do more to ensure that all Americans have access to voluntary, routine and early HIV testing in order to save lives and reduce the spread of this terrible disease," he told American Medical News.

Other officials told the news source that making HIV testing a part of regular healthcare could help increase the rate of testing further.