Characteristics of Australian women who test positive for HIV: implications for giving  test results

Hopkins, Carol A; Cummings, Rosey A; Read, Tim R H; Fairley, Christopher K

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2007.tb00925.x

Topics

To the Editor: Improving clinical efficiency helps sexual health services deal with the demands of increasing rates of sexually transmitted infections.1,2 Many Australian sexual health centres require all clients to return in person to obtain their HIV test results; legislation only requires those who test positive to return in person.3 Giving HIV test results by phone to low-risk clients may improve efficiency.

1 Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, VIC.
2 Sexual Health Unit, School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC.

Correspondence: chopkins@mshc.org.au

1. Rogstadt KE, Copas AJ. The impact of pump-priming funding on genitourinary medicine and modernization of services. Int J STD AIDS 2004; 15: 653-657.
2. Wright SJ, Kell PD, Tobin R, Breen E. A review of policy change regarding how patients access their HIV test results at two genitourinary medicine services in Central London. Int J STD AIDS 2006; 17: 753-754.
3. Government of Victoria. Health Act 1958. Section 127. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ha195869/s127.html (accessed Oct 2006).
4. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UN/AIDS). 2006 report on the global AIDS epidemic. Annex 2: HIV and AIDS estimates and data, 2005 and 2003. http://data.unaids.org/pub/GlobalReport/2006/2006_GR_ANN2_en.pdf (accessed Oct 2006).

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