Table 1b.

Who should be offered a test? Adapted from British HIV Association, British Association of Sexual Health and HIV, British Infection Society. UK national guidelines for HIV testing 2008. BHIVA, 2008.

Universal HIV testing is recommended in:

  • genitourinary medicine or sexual health clinics

  • antenatal services

  • termination of pregnancy services

  • drug dependency programmes

  • healthcare services for those diagnosed with tuberculosis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and lymphoma.

Routine HIV testing is recommended in the following settings, where diagnosed HIV prevalence in the local population exceeds 2/1,000:

  • all men and women registering in general practice

  • all general medical admissions.

HIV testing should also be routinely offered and recommended for:

  • all patients presenting for healthcare where HIV, including primary HIV infection, enters the differential diagnoses

  • all patients diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection

  • all sexual partners of men and women known to be HIV positive

  • all men who have disclosed sexual contact with other men

  • all female sexual contacts of men who have sex with men

  • all transgender persons

  • all patients reporting a history of injecting drug use

  • all men and women known to be from a country of high HIV prevalence (>1%)a

  • all men and women who report sexual contact abroad or in the UK with individuals from countries of high prevalence.a