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Louisville doctor stresses the importance of HIV screenings

Norton Healthcare is offering HIV screenings at Norton Hospital, and will be rolling them out to all four of its adult emergency departments.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In recognition of World AIDS Day, medical professionals with Norton Healthcare are reminding us of the importance of HIV screenings to keep recent promising trends continuing.

Norton Healthcare has begun offering HIV screenings at Norton Hospital and will be rolling out screening all four of its adult emergency departments in the Louisville area. The hope is that this will allow doctors to identify and diagnose sufferers early so they can keep infection under control. 

Norton said it provides an average of 4,800 unique screenings each month (2,300 of which take place in the emergency department). In October of this year, these yielded 15 new diagnoses of HIV. An average month will see 8 new diagnoses. Being diagnosed is important for HIV and AIDS sufferers because they can begin treatment and prevent the disease from spreading further.

“The roughly 20 percent of people with HIV in the US [who] don’t know it are responsible for about 50% of the new cases,” said Dr. Paul Schulz, an Adult Infectious Disease physician with Norton Healthcare. “It’s really critical to find these people who are infected, get them on treatment, and that prevents them from getting sick and prevents them from spreading the virus to other people.”

Health experts recommend that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 gets screened at least one time. HIV and AIDS can affect people of all races and sexual orientations.

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