The aim is to trace people who have an HIV infection, but who do not know it themselves. We do this by actively detecting so-called HIV indicator disorders. This is a list of conditions and diseases, compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), that are known to occur more often in people with HIV than in people without HIV.
HIV indicator disorders occur in all specialisms and should give rise to testing for HIV, as recommended by the WHO and the RIVM. This happens all over the world, but also in the Netherlands too little. This is partly because some conditions do not occur often or because the association with HIV is insufficiently known. Not testing for HIV leads to avoidable damage to health, new HIV infections and higher healthcare costs.
“We know from previous research that the vast majority of patients who were diagnosed with HIV had seen a doctor with an HIV indicator condition in the years prior to that diagnosis,” says physician-researcher Carlijn Jordans from Erasmus MC. “Many of those patients were not tested for HIV. It may be that the link between the indicator condition and HIV infection has not been recognized or that there is a threshold to perform an HIV test.”
Electronic patients file
In the #aware.hiv project, the identification of the HIV indicator disorders is done automatically via the electronic patient file. The HIV team of the LUMC’s infectious diseases department assesses the identification and, if necessary, contacts the attending physician, with the recommendation to have the patient tested for HIV. The HIV team will never approach the patient itself. Information material for doctors and patients is also available from #aware.hiv.
There is still a taboo surrounding HIV, both in society and in healthcare. With #aware.hiv we try to break through this, normalize HIV testing for both patients and healthcare providers and thus improve HIV detection and care.
Anna Roukens, head of the HIV team at LUMC: “With this project, we are trying to remove the difficulty that healthcare professionals have with testing for HIV. In the meantime, this infection no longer has to be fatal and in many cases can be treated just as well and often even better. treatment than diabetes or high blood pressure. In addition, someone who is well treated for his or her HIV infection can no longer transmit the virus to another person, so early detection has both an individual and social interest.”
By: National Care Guide