BMJ  2003;326:1174 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7400.1174

Paper

Uptake of HIV screening in genitourinary medicine after change to "opt-out" consent

¹ Department of Genitourinary Medicine, North Cumbria Acute Hospitals Trust, Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle CA2 7HY, ² Department of Dermatology, North Cumbria Acute Hospitals Trust

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

"Routine" serological testing of patients in genitourinary medicine clinics screens for syphilis but not HIV, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C. Viral hepatitis and HIV are transmitted by sexual intercourse. National anonymised data from routine serological tests showed that patients in genitourinary medicine have a higher risk of testing positive for antibodies to HIV than does the general population.¹ The national sexual health strategy states that 40% of new patients attending genitourinary medicine clinics should be screened for HIV infection by 2004 and 60% by 2007.² Anticipating these targets, we audited our testing rates in our clinic and introduced change to increase uptake.

Participants, methods, and results

We examined case notes for 200 consecutive new patients attending genitourinary medicine clinics before August 2001 (100 at each clinic site of the genitourinary medicine department in North Cumbria) for blood tests requested (syphilis, HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C) and reasons given by the patients for declining screening. . . . [Full text of this article]

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