U.N. Experts Call for Routine HIV Testing

[Blackaxe]

The current strategy of leaving it to patients to request an HIV test is not working in the developing world, where 90 percent of those infected with the AIDS virus have no idea they are carrying it, U.N. health experts said Saturday.

The U.N. AIDS agency and World Health Organization said countries where HIV is widespread and where treatment is available should test routinely while allowing patients to opt out.

"The environment of AIDS is changing dramatically. Not only is there a globalization of the epidemic across Asia and Eastern Europe, but there is also a fundamental shift in the response, where treatment is becoming far more available," said Dr. Peter Piot, chief of UNAIDS.

The change in recommended police was announced ahead of Sunday's opening of the International AIDS Conference.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Living/ap20040710_476.html

[dArKeR]

1. Aids conference opens amid chilling warnings

Bangkok - The largest global conference of Aids experts, activists and leaders opens here Sunday amid chilling warnings about the growing threat to swathes of the world's population.

Activists and agencies working to combat the disease are expected to use the 15th International Aids Conference to demand more money to fight the pandemic with new catastrophes threatening the world's most populous continent Asia and Eastern Europe.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Sunday warned that Asia's economic successes were threatened by the spread of HIV/Aids after experts warned that only a three-year window remained for the region's leaders to head off a crisis that could exceed anything yet seen in sub-Saharan Africa.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=iol1089522704691A320