KGO

By Lyanne Melendez

Sep. 12, 2007 (KGO) - The next time you visit your doctor be ready for an aids test. HIV testing is expected to become a routine part of a medical exam. That's if the governor signs a bill passed unanimously by the California assembly.

Lawmakers in Sacramento describe routine testing for HIV "the most important change in public HIV/AIDS policy in years."

Patients will no longer have to fill out a special form before getting an HIV test when seeing a doctor or going to a hospital. They will receive the blood test unless they say no.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation says about 40,000 people living in California don't know they are HIV positive. They are eventually diagnosed when symptoms develop; by then some have full blown AIDS.

Health care providers like Dr. Ricardo Alvarez say that's the case among many Latinos and African-Americans.

There are other dangers of not getting tested early.

"Also means that you are continuing to engage in the risky behaviors that are now spreading the HIV infection within the community," said Dr. Ricardo Alvarez from the Mission Neighborhood Health Center.

Alvan Quamina is with Aids Project of the East Bay.

"Obviously to the extent that HIV testing becomes more routine becomes normalized we hope that in communities of color that will decrease the stigma and will raise the rates of testing and therefore the percent of people that know about their HIV status," said Quamina.

Take San Francisco General Hospital. Last year, the health department replaced written consent with verbal consent for testing. As a result, the number of diagnosed HIV cases at general went from 20 a month to over 30.

But the ACLU opposes the bill so does the center for health justice. The fear is that people will not get enough information about the disease before getting tested.

They say: "we want to make sure people make an informed decision about whether or when to test for HIV."

Dr. Grant Colfax heads the San Francisco Office of Aids Prevention. He says early HIV detection saves taxpayers million of dollars.

"Because you are going to catch people earlier, you are going to reduce transmission and you are going to reduce AIDS mortality because people are going to get into care faster," said Dr. Colfax

Copyright 2007, ABC7/KGO-TV/DT.