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While other medical systems across the country failed to maintain HIV screening volumes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Chicago Medicine maintained screening volumes by including universal HIV screening alongside COVID-19 testing in its busy emergency department, according to a new report published April 12 in
JAMA Internal Medicine. Through targeted efforts to maintain infrastructure and enthusiasm for HIV screening, the number of HIV tests remained at pre-pandemic levels while the rate of acute HIV diagnoses actually increased.
Widespread screening to diagnose individuals newly infected with HIV is a key part of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention s (CDC) plan to end the HIV epidemic in America. However, the COVID-19 pandemic presented a challenge, because changes to the logistics of running emergency departments during a pandemic led to reduced HIV screening across the country.