Currently, Changi General Hospital and Singapore General Hospital are the two hospitals offering voluntary screening for patients. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
HIV TESTING will be offered to all patients aged 21 and above who are admitted to the six public hospitals here by year end.
But patients can opt out of the test. If they agree to it, they will be charged $6 to $25 depending on their ward class.
Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Balaji Sadasivan announced this at the 6th Aids Conference yesterday as part of a strategy to identify more HIV-positive patients in the early stages of the disease.
HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, attacks a person's immune system. It is spread mainly through unprotected sex, sharing of needles, and from mother to baby during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding.
Aids, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is HIV in its late stages, when sufferers are so weakened that even an ordinary cold may prove fatal.
There were 345 new cases of HIV-positive patients in the first nine months of this year, compared to 423 new cases for the whole of last year. This brings the total number of reported HIV cases to 3,828.
Citing a recommendation by the United States' Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, DrBalaji said HIV testing should be done as part of routine medical check-ups, and no differently from screenings for other treatable conditions.
Currently, two hospitals offer voluntary screening for patients.
Changi General Hospital started it in December last year, and 50 out of 3,000 patients have tested HIV positive so far. Singapore General Hospital began HIV screening in June. It has not released statistics on the number of cases identified.
Alexandra Hospital, National University Hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and KK Women's and Children's Hospital will follow suit by the end of the year.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) will spend $3.8 million over the next three years to support these screenings. Talks are also being held with private hospitals to offer similar programmes.
Test results are made known only to the patient and the doctors. If the patient is HIV positive, the hospital must inform the ministry.
Third parties, such as employers or insurers, will not be told. Patients who test positive, or who decline to be tested, will still receive the medical treatment they came for in the first place.
Of the new cases so far this year, half were diagnosed when the infection had reached its late stages. This means sufferers could have been infected for seven to eight years and may have unknowingly spread the disease to their partners in that time, said Dr Balaji at the conference held at Suntec City.
Referring to an anonymous survey last year by MOH, which found that one in 350 patients discharged from hospitals was HIV positive but was undiagnosed, he said: 'This is not something our hospitals can be proud of.'
He acknowledged that HIV is a 'complex disease' and the stigma associated with it must be eradicated to encourage more people to accept the HIV tests.
