The new CDC HIV testing Proposal is BAD medical practice.

I am a Board Certified MD with 25 years experience diagnosing and
treating AIDs patients, and I am opposed to the new CDC proposal for
mandatory HIV testing of low-risk people who come into contact with the
medical system at emergency rooms and ambulatory care centers.  This is
BAD medical practice.  In addition, I urge all physicians to stand up
and join with me in opposition to these new HIV testing policies
proposed by the CDC.  The new CDC recommendation to routinely perform
HIV antibody testing on the entire low-risk population is a BAD IDEA.
This is why:

"Elite Controllers" are HIV positives who are alive and well without
disease for many years without ever taking anti-HIV drugs.  Although
current opinion suggests these are rare individuals, my opinion is that
they are not so rare and many more will be stepping forward to identify
themselves to participate in the Mass General Hospital study. My point
is that this is a population of HIV positive people who never get sick
and don't have a disease.  The risks of toxic anti-HIV drugs (bone
marrow suppression, liver failure and Stevens Johnson Syndrome) is far
greater to them than the theoretical risk of Kaposi's Sarcoma or
Pneumocystis Carinii pneumonia which are the hallmark of classic AIDS
as first described in the San Francisco Gay population in the early
1980's.

We know that the Elite Controllers are not rare because the CDC
estimates that there are a quarter million HIV positives in the
low-risk general population who are unaware of their HIV status.  These
people are generally healthy and find no reason to seek out medical
testing and are probably Elite Controllers.

The new CDC recommendations to test all these low-risk people in the
general population will merely identify Elite Controllers in the
population and then recommend to them the standard toxic anti-HIV drug
treatment which is far more dangerous to their health than their HIV
positive status which will not cause a disease in this population.

I am a Board Certified MD with 25 years experience diagnosing and
treating AIDs patients and I am opposed to the new CDC proposal for
mandatory HIV testing of low-risk people who come into contact with the
medical system at emergency rooms and ambulatory care centers.  This is
BAD medical practice.  In addition, I urge all physicians to stand up
and join with me in opposition to these new HIV testing policies
proposed by the CDC.

Signed: www.drdach.com