Better Mechanisms to Detect Acute HIV Infection

Detection and treatment of HIV in the United States has improved dramatically since the peak of the epidemic here in the 1980s, but there is far more work to be done. HIV transmission is one area of heightened concern, particularly those cases spread by newly infected persons who remain undiagnosed. Though tests are available to diagnose HIV in the acute phase, many experts believe we must improve these tests to really make headway in reducing the incidence of HIV in the United States. Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a deputy health officer and director of the STD Prevention and Control Services Section at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, joins host Dr. Mark Nolan Hill to lay out the path toward progress in detecting acute cases of HIV infection. Newer, more effective tests are available, but must be adopted around the United States, and as Dr. Klausner looks ahead, a point-of-care rapid exam, though still in development, could eventually change the paradigm for early-stage HIV detection.