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Changes in HIV Testing Policies and the Implications for Women
Author(s) -
Maman Suzanne,
King Elizabeth
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of midwifery and women's health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.543
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1542-2011
pISSN - 1526-9523
DOI - 10.1016/j.jmwh.2007.11.001
Subject(s) - test (biology) , medicine , health care , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , informed consent , vulnerability (computing) , family medicine , hiv test , gerontology , nursing , health services , alternative medicine , environmental health , political science , population , health facility , paleontology , computer security , pathology , computer science , biology , law
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) together with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) recently released new guidelines for HIV testing in health care settings. Both sets of guidelines recommend eliminating individual informed consent in favor of an opt‐out approach that requires clients to actively decline the HIV test after a pretest information session. The revised guidelines also recommend reducing the amount of counseling that accompanies the HIV test. Women are more likely than men to be affected by efforts to expand access to HIV testing in health care settings because of women's increased vulnerability to HIV and greater contact with the health care system. Women may also be more susceptible to changes to the consent and counseling process for HIV testing because of their marginalized social status in many settings. More research is needed to document women's experiences with provider‐initiated, opt‐out HIV testing. Understanding women's experiences will help to formulate feasible and effective strategies to support women and ensure they gain access to HIV treatment services.