Few Teen Boys at Risk for HIV Get Tested

TUESDAY, Feb. eleven, 2020 (HealthDay Information) — Much too few teenage boys at danger for HIV infection are analyzed for the AIDS-triggering virus in the United States, scientists say.

And this contributes to the expanding epidemic of undiagnosed HIV in the nation.

Shut to 15% of HIV bacterial infections in the United States are undiagnosed, but the undiagnosed charge is much more than three.five times bigger (51%) among thirteen- to 24-12 months-olds, according to the analyze authors.

“Health professionals — pediatricians in distinct — will need to be possessing much more frank and open conversations with their male teenage people,” stated analyze co-author Brian Mustanski. He’s director of the Northwestern College College of Drugs Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing.

“If moms and dads talk to their teen’s provider to talk about sexual overall health and tests, this may possibly be sufficient to start that crucial dialogue in the exam area, leading to an HIV test,” Mustanski stated in a university news launch.

These talks should consist of a thorough sexual heritage and a dialogue about sexual orientation — “ideally a non-public discussion with no moms and dads current,” he added.

For the analyze, the investigators asked almost seven hundred homosexual, bisexual and questioning male adolescents, aged thirteen to eighteen, if they’d ever experienced an HIV test. The scientists also asked about their sexual behaviors and condom use, any HIV education from educational institutions and family, sexual overall health conversations with physicians, HIV knowledge, and attitudes about prevention and danger.

All round, much less than one particular in 4 experienced ever experienced an HIV test. Only one particular-third of individuals who engaged in anal intercourse with no a condom — which carries a substantial danger of HIV transmission — stated they’d been analyzed, according to the report.

Boundaries to HIV tests among this substantial-danger team of teenager boys consist of remaining unaware that they can lawfully consent to an HIV test, not knowing wherever to get analyzed and fears of remaining outed, the analyze authors stated.

Elements that improve the likelihood of tests consist of speaking with moms and dads about intercourse and HIV prevention, knowing basic points about HIV, feeling that tests is vital and feeling empowered to do it.

The analyze was printed on-line Feb. eleven in the journal Pediatrics.

— Robert Preidt

Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All legal rights reserved.

Issue

What is HIV?
See Reply

References

Resource: Northwestern College, news launch, Feb. eleven, 2020