美国疾病预防与控制中心（CDC）基于对二百八十万美国民众筛查的结果，认为积极主动筛查艾滋病病毒感染者对艾滋病的防治非常重要。这是因为：

１、筛查可以发现那些尚不知道自己已经被艾滋病病毒感染者，进而有利于保护其它人，特别他或她的性伴侣。美国疾病预防与控制中心所主导的这项筛查行动，自2007～2010年共筛查了约二百八十万人，发现18432人已经被艾滋病病毒感染，这是一项很了不起的成就。该中心还指出，全美约有一百二十万艾滋病病毒感染者，其中约有20%并不知情，故必须加强筛查。

２、筛查有利于早期发现艾滋病病毒感染者，进而尽早进行抗病毒治疗，以改善被感染者的预后。

美国疾病预防与控制中心强调，那些性生活频繁者，特别是同性恋或双性取向的男性应该经常接受是否被艾滋病病毒感染之筛查，以尽早发现该病毒携带者，并接受抗病毒治疗。

CDC Cites Benefits of Expanded HIV Testing Program

Three-year initiative identified 18,432 people infected with AIDS-causing virus

THURSDAY, June 23 (HealthDay News) -- A trial HIV testing program screened nearly 2.8 million Americans from 2007 to 2010 and identified 18,432 people infected with the AIDS-causing virus, federal health officials said Thursday.

Seventy-five percent of those newly diagnosed with HIV were referred to health care, officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"The goal is to test, to link to care and then to treat," said Dr. Michael A. Kolber, director of the Comprehensive AIDS Program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Testing is also important because once someone finds out they are infected with HIV they often change their behavior, he said.

One of the main problems with testing is reaching those groups of people most at risk, including gay and bisexual men and African Americans, who make up the majority of new cases, the CDC said. The new report said blacks accounted for 60 percent of those tested and 70 percent of the new cases.

Due to the program's success, the CDC has extended it. The agency said that of the 1.2 million Americans living with HIV, 20 percent don't know they are infected.

"Expanding testing is critical to help individuals receive life-extending treatment and protect the health of their partners," the CDC said.

More HIV testing, particularly in health-care settings, can help to identify more new cases. This, in turn, can lead to earlier treatment with life-extending drugs, fewer deaths and reduced transmission of the virus, the agency said.

Said Kolber: "We know that getting people started on antiretroviral therapy has an impact on disease progression."

He believes HIV infection should be treated like any sexually transmitted disease.

"If you are sexually active, you should be tested frequently," he said. "If we did have it as a regular test, like any sexually transmitted disease test, we would probably pick up more people. The only way to affect an epidemic such as this is to find everybody who has the disease and try to take care of them."

The new report is published in the June 24 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

SOURCES: Michael A. Kolber, M.D., professor of medicine and director, Comprehensive AIDS Program, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; June 24, 2011, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention