Federal health officials Thursday recommended regular, routine testing for the AIDS virus for all Americans ages 13 to 64, saying an HIV test should be as common as a cholesterol check.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines are aimed at preventing the further spread of the disease and getting needed care for an estimated 250,000 Americans who don't yet know they have it. The guidelines also could help end the stigma of HIV testing.

Nearly half of new HIV infections are discovered when doctors are trying to diagnose a patient who has already grown sick with an HIV-related illness, CDC officials said. "By identifying people earlier through a screening program, we'll allow them to access life-extending therapy, and also through prevention services, learn how to avoid transmitting HIV infection to others," said Dr. Timothy Mastro, acting director of the CDC's division of HIV/AIDS prevention.

"What we're seeing right now, especially in the South (where) we have one of the highest rates in the whole country of HIV infections, if we get this early we can do something to help them," Katner said.

When the diagnosis comes late, "sometimes we can't turn them around," Katner said. "It's really, really critical we find out who is infected so we can stop it."

Although complete statistics for Georgia's North Central Health District were not immediately available Thursday evening, Katner said 127 new HIV cases were diagnosed in the district in 2005.

"That's about one in every three days, and of those about 35 percent are female, which is down from a high of 40 percent but still above the national average of about 20-something percent," Katner said.

Jennifer Jones, public information officer for the North Central Health District, said statistics don't tell the whole story because only people who are tested with positive results are included.

"I think it's an incredible advance. I think it's courageous on the part of the CDC," said A. David Paltiel, a health policy expert at the Yale University School of Medicine.

However, some doctors' groups predict the recommendations will be challenging to implement, requiring more money and time for testing, counseling and revising consent procedures.

Some physicians also question whether there is enough evidence to expand testing beyond high-risk groups, said Dr. Larry Fields, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

But the recommendations were endorsed by the American Medical Association, which urged doctors to comply. The CDC said it's difficult to predict how many doctors will.

Previously, the CDC recommended routine testing for those at high-risk for catching the virus, such as intravenous drug users and gay men, and for hospitals and certain other institutions serving areas where HIV is common. It also recommended testing for all pregnant women.

Under the new guidelines, patients would be tested for the AIDS virus as part of the standard tests they get when they go for urgent or emergency care, or even during a routine physical.

Consent for the test would be covered in a clinic or hospital's standard care consent form. Patients would be allowed to decline the testing. The CDC's guidelines say no one should be tested without their knowledge.

An American Civil Liberties Union official protested the CDC's idea of dealing with HIV on standard consent forms, and the agency's de-emphasis of pre-test counseling.

"By eliminating these safeguards, what they're calling 'routine testing' will in practice be mandatory testing," said Rose Saxe, a staff attorney with the ACLU AIDS Project.

WellPoint, the Indianapolis company that owns 14 Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans across the country, has not yet taken a position on the CDC guidelines.

It also hasn't estimated what it will cost to expand HIV testing for its 34 million members, but it traditionally covers tests recommended by the CDC, said WellPoint spokeswoman Shannon Troughton.

The recommendation, if fully implemented, could mean testing for to 100 to 200 million Americans, said Ron Spair, chief financial officer of Pennsylvania-based OraSure Technologies, one of three companies that sell rapid-result HIV tests in the United States.

The other companies are MedMira Inc. and Trinity Biotech. Standard HIV tests are done through both public health labs and private and commercial labs.

Identifying more HIV patients will place an added burden on public health programs that pay for such care, some of which are facing potential cuts under a proposal before Congress. But more diagnoses may help win bolstered funding, said John Peebles, an assistant branch chief over HIV programs at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Resources.

The CDC has been working on the guidelines for about three years, and got input from more than 100 groups, including doctors' associations and HIV patient support groups.

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