Why is swift detection so important?

By testing early, a person can take immediate steps to determine a medical care plan with their physician or health care provider. Early testing also alerts an HIV-infected person to avoid high-risk behaviors that may pass along the virus to others.

Sadly however, many who are tested for HIV in public clinics are never alerted to their HIV status. In fact, each year 8,000 HIV-infected people who come to public clinics for HIV testing do not return a week later to receive their test results.

Drug resistance has become a significant obstacle in the fight against AIDS, rendering treatments ineffective. Clinicians and researchers must constantly devise new combinations of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimens as the virus mutates. Thus, research into HIV mutations may provide clinicians with new therapeutic tools.
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