Recent changes in New York State law combined with new developments in the technology of HIV testing are expanding the number of New Yorkers who are getting tested for AIDS and HIV, experts say.

Last summer, then-Gov. David Paterson signed a law mandating that health care providers offer HIV testing to patients between the ages of 13 and 64 who seek hospital or primary care services — an attempt to make testing a routine component of medical care.

“If you have a hangnail and you go to the emergency room, you need to be asked if you want to have an AIDS test,” said Dr. Daniel Amsterdam, clinical director of laboratory medicine at the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, New York.

The change in law, he said, has led to a boost in the number of people getting tested and, in some instances, detecting the virus in patients who did not suspect they had it and otherwise wouldn’t have known they were infected.

“We’ve increased testing tremendously — almost five-fold the number of tests that we do,” Amsterdam said.
New methods have also advanced the accuracy of HIV/AIDS testing and decreased the interval of time after exposure that the virus can be detected.

This month, the New York State Department of Health updated its recommendations for health care providers treating pregnant women, encourage the use of newer “fourth generation” HIV tests because they can detect the virus sooner than traditional methods.

The new tests, approved by the FDA last year, can detect HIV antigens — a substance found on the virus that triggers the production of antibodies. Other tests look only for the antibodies themselves, which take time after infection for the body to produce, meaning a test for antibodies could come back negative even if a person has been infected. This is the reason most health care providers recommend waiting at least three months after your last sexual encounter before getting tested.

“[The new test] shortens that window period,” Amsterdam said. “It diminishes the period where you might be infected but where it’s not readily detected by tests.”

In the Bronx, there are 23,248 people living with HIV or AIDS, according to 2009 statistics from the Dept. of Health. For the last several years, the Dept. of Health has campaigned to get more Bronxites tested, launching “The Bronx Knows Initiative” in 2008 in response to the large number of residents here who did not know their status.

Amsterdam says everyone who is sexually active should be tested often.

“It’s something you should continually monitor, and you need to know your partner’s status as well.”

WHERE TO GET TESTED
To find a clinic or location near you that offers HIV testing, you can text message your zip code to KnowIT, or 566948, or visit www.hivtest.org.

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