AMA meeting: Consent should be required for HIV testing, AMA says

Delegates also recommend legislation allowing doctors to provide STD therapies for patients to give their partners.

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Dec. 3, 2007.

Honolulu -- Physicians should routinely test their adult patients for HIV but ought to obtain informed consent before they do so, according to an ethical opinion adopted at the AMA Interim Meeting last month.

The policy is generally in line with 2006 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, but AMA policy requires patient consent.

"The new CDC guidelines say that simply consenting to general medical care implies consent for an HIV test, but we believe that specific and full informed consent is imperative, especially considering the consequences of an HIV-positive result," said Kavita Shah, a medical student member of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs.

The informed consent need not be written or documented, and testing without prior consent is OK in limited cases, such as when health care professionals are potentially exposed to HIV, the ethics policy states.

An estimated 25% of those infected -- about 250,000 Americans -- are unaware that they are living with HIV.

Doctors should ensure that those who test positive get the follow-up care and counseling they need, the new policy says. Physicians also should comply with disease reporting laws while protecting their patients' privacy as much as possible.

Lastly, the AMA policy says, doctors are obligated to notify public health authorities if they believe a patient "poses a significant threat of infecting an identifiable third party."