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In 2006, the CDC recommended that all adolescents and adults should be offered HIV screening in healthcare settings, including emergency departments, to achieve universal screening. This change was prompted, in part, by the availability of new rapid HIV tests. To examine the specificity of a rapid oral HIV test (OraQuick Advance Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody Test), researchers offered HIV screening to a heterogeneous population of 2356 nonemergent patients at one ED in Boston; 1397 (59%) patients agreed to be tested, and 854 were actually tested (the remaining patients declined or were not tested because of time limitations). Samples were collected at the bedside, and tests were developed on-site.
Among 849 patients with interpretable results, 39 h…