Expanding the Availability and
Acceptance of Voluntary HIV Testing
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| GUIDING PRINCIPLES |
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ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS (list in formation) AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts,
Inc. (MA)
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This set of principles comes from discussions involving a coalition of human rights, medical, HIV service, and related organizations, and is intended to guide discussions and implementation of expanded HIV testing programs. The primary authors of the principles are the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, the Center for HIV Law and Policy, and Lambda Legal, with input from advocates around the country. The principles are meant to inform stakeholders working on expanded testing. They are a tool to help stimulate conversations, planning, and community input. We hope that they will guide implementation discussions and call on stakeholders to consider treatment and care issues that should be linked to testing. They were conceived in the belief that everyone—consumers, community leaders, HIV/AIDS service organizations, physicians, nurses, public health and elected officials, etc—has a stake in achieving an expanded testing paradigm in a thoughtful and meaningful way that produces long-term benefits for those with HIV. The principles will be shared with state and federal public health officials, prevention planning groups, service and community organizations, media, and others. Endorsers of these principles are deeply concerned with the extent to which the focus on “streamlined” counseling and consent for HIV is viewed as in itself sufficient to solve the problem of late HIV diagnoses and entry into treatment. Without an equivalent focus on factors such as funding, training, and evaluation, let alone patient mistrust and the benefits of informed decision-making, relatively few will benefit and some will likely be harmed. Endorsing organizations are calling for achievable testing expansion that recognizes the importance of patient autonomy and human rights, and actually reaches the undiagnosed and affords them real access to care and services. Site Hosted By:
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