TY - JOUR T1 - HIV testing in abortion clinics JF - Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care JO - J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care SP - 198 LP - 200 DO - 10.1136/jfprhc-2011-100136 VL - 37 IS - 4 AU - Sylvia M Bates Y1 - 2011/10/01 UR - http://jfprhc.bmj.com/content/37/4/198.abstract N2 - Reducing undiagnosed HIV infection in the UK remains a public health priority and there has been much discussion as to whether there should be universal offer of testing for women attending abortion services. In 2008, the British HIV Association (BHIVA) recommended this in their National Guidelines for HIV Testing.1 More recently, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) have published guidance on increasing HIV testing in Black African communities, in which they support the offer of a test to all women attending abortion services in accordance with the BHIVA guidelines.2 However, there remains a paucity of good research on testing in this particular setting. In 2004, evidence-based guidelines for women requesting induced abortion published by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) recommended selected offer of HIV testing, leaving the decision to local services based on population prevalence and available resources.3 These guidelines are soon to be updated and it will be of interest to see if the RCOG change their stance on this in light of the above mentioned publications. In the UK there were an estimated 86 500 people living with HIV infection at the end of 2009, and an estimated 26% of these were unaware of their infection.4 Of particular note, there has been an increase in infections that are acquired within the UK in heterosexual people, from an estimated 740 in 2004 to 1130 in 2009.4 With the advent of effective antiretroviral therapy, HIV infection has become a manageable, long-term condition, and the estimated survival for a person diagnosed at the age of 20 years is approximately two-thirds that of the general population.5 Yet despite this, over half of patients are not diagnosed until their CD4 count has fallen below 350, the level at which initiation … ER -