ABSTRACT
Beginning in the late 1980s, testing for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection became commonplace. As a result of greater public awareness of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and increasingly easy access to counseling and testing services, many individuals perceiving themselves to be at risk of infection underwent voluntary testing. Widespread prenatal testing programs as well as mandatory testing of military recruits, applicants for immigration, and many persons applying for life or health insurance have identified individuals who were unaware of their risk. In recent years, as rapid testing for antibody to HIV has become more accessible and efforts have focused increasingly on the “routinization” of HIV testing as an important component of primary care of adults and adolescents, additional individuals have been identified with symptomatic or asymptomatic HIV infection at all stages of diseases. Simultaneously, as discussed in chapter 5, advances in therapy and preventive strategies for certain AIDS-related opportunistic infections have provided a strong medical indication for identifying HIV infection in its earliest stages.
