Effective HIV case identification through routine HIV screening at urgent care centers in Massachusetts.
Think HIV offered HIV counseling, testing, and referral to patients at 4 Massachusetts urgent care centers from January to September 2002. We compared the positive diagnosis yield of Think HIV with that of state-funded HIV counseling, testing, and referral sites. Think HIV found an HIV prevalence of 2.0% compared with 1.9% identified by self-referral testing. Urgent care center-based routine HIV counseling, testing, and referral programs are feasible, can have high positive diagnosis yields, and should be the standard of care in high HIV prevalence areas.
Walensky
Rochelle P
RP
Division of General Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 50 Staniford St, 9th Floor, Boston, MA 02114, USA. rwalensky@partners.org
Losina
Elena
E
Malatesta
Laureen
L
Barton
George E
GE
O'Connor
Catherine A
CA
Skolnik
Paul R
PR
Hall
Jonathan M
JM
McGuire
Jean F
JF
Freedberg
Kenneth A
KA
D000328:Adult; D003376:Counseling; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011634:Public Health / Q000379:methods*; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012725:Sexual Behavior