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Results of offering oral rapid HIV screening within a dental school clinic
Author(s) -
SuarezDurall Piedad,
Osborne Maile S.,
Enciso Reyes,
Melrose M. Diane,
Mulligan Roseann
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
special care in dentistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.328
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1754-4505
pISSN - 0275-1879
DOI - 10.1111/scd.12363
Subject(s) - medicine , hiv screening , ethnic group , incidence (geometry) , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , pacific islanders , test (biology) , family medicine , dental clinic , hiv test , hiv diagnosis , viral load , population , men who have sex with men , environmental health , antiretroviral therapy , syphilis , health services , paleontology , physics , health facility , sociology , anthropology , optics , biology
To broaden the availability of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing, we offered rapid HIV screening tests to 811 patients attending a dental school for routine dental hygiene care. Study design is a prospective cross‐sectional study. The 319 (39.3%) agreeing to test, self‐identified as: Hispanic (34.4%), White (25.8%), African American (13.1%), Asian (8.3%), Native American/Pacific Islander (0.9%), more than one race/ethnicity (1.1%) or declining to state (16.5%). Over 35% ( n = 113) were first time HIV test takers, with another 2.2% ( n = 7) unaware of their testing history. Approximately 60% of the decliners choose “just don't want test today” as the reason. Following a strictly structured algorithm, four possible undiagnosed infections were initially identified, with one completing the algorithm to case confirmation. In conclusion, the confirmed incidence rate finding of HIV seropositivity of 0.31% found through initial screening at the dental clinic, compared with the 0.018% incidence rate of HIV with confirmed diagnosis in Los Angeles County, indicates that a rapid HIV screening test offered in a dental school clinic can potentially play an important role in discovering undiagnosed HIV individuals.