Should You Be Tested For HIV?
Description
This article is from the Health Articles series.
Should You Be Tested For HIV?
You cannot tell by looking at someone whether he or she has HIV infection. Someone can look and feel perfectly healthy and still be infected. Many people who have HIV infection do not know it. Of the estimated 900,000 persons infected in the U.S., approximately one-third have yet to be diagnosed. The HIV-antibody test is the only way to tell whether you are infected.
There are many benefits to early detection of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Medicines available today and the earlier use of antiretroviral therapy allow many people exposed to HIV to live longer, healthier lives. The HIV-antibody test should always include a before-test and an after-test counseling. This counseling is to help you understand your result, how to protect your own health and, if infected how to keep you from infecting others.
Should I Seek HIV Counseling And Testing?
If you have engaged in behavior that can transmit HIV, it's very important that you consider counseling and testing. The following are high-risk behaviors for HIV:
- Sharing needles or syringes to inject drugs or steroids;
- If you are a male, having unprotected sex with other men;
- Having unprotected sex with someone who you know or suspect is exposed with HIV;
- Having a sexually transmitted disease (STD);
- Having sex with someone you didn't know his or her risk behavior.
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