Part one: does your teen need HIV testing?

June 11, 6:43 PMBaltimore Family Health ExaminerNancy Eason

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AP Photo/Fox/Carin Baer

Allison Agwu, M.D., a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, recently spoke to primary care pediatricians about HIV testing in teens during her talk at Pediatric Trends, an annual national conference held at Hopkins.

Most people are aware that any teen anywhere can engage in high risk activities involving sex and/or injectable drugs. Teens can present at the doctor's office during the earliest and most contagious stage of HIV, known as acute retroviral syndrome (ARS). Doctors need to be on the lookout for ARS. There are three reasons that "ARS should be on every pediatrician's radar screen," says Dr. Agwu.

1. About 14 teenagers become infected with HIV every day in the United States.

2. ARS is under-reported and under diagnosed.

3. Early infections are highly contagious.

When asked about how parents can communicate their concerns about their teen to their pediatrician, Dr. Agwu said: "I think it begins with having open and honest communication with your teen and then your pediatrician. Without the honesty with the teen, many parents may not even be aware of their teen's activities that may put them at risk. Once there is some concern about the possibility of this diagnosis [See symptoms in part two: Does your teen need a rapid screening or PCR test for HIV?], I would suggest that the parent openly and honestly discuss what risk behaviors they are concerned [about] places their teen at risk for HIV and the possibility of early HIV infection given the teen's symptoms. That is a great starting point."

Dr. Agwu reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends [HIV] testing for all individuals between the ages of 13 and 64 as a routine part of medical care. "We need to move past feeling that only certain people get HIV as it does touch every community in some way or another and has hit the Baltimore-Washington community particularly hard," says Dr. Agwu.

For more information, readers can visit the main web site for the Johns Hopkins Children's Center as well as the web page of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Division.

For appointments with a pediatric infectious disease expert, call 410-614-3917.

For teens who are not connected with a health care provider for general or HIV care call the Johns Hopkins Harriet lane Clinic at 410-955-5710.