| The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is planning to recommend that doctors begin to offer voluntary HIV tests as part of routine medical care for everyone in the U.S., ages 13 to 64, regardless or lifestyle or perceived risk of HIV. It's a sweeping revision of HIV guidelines, as the CDC said it will recommend patients no longer be required to sign separate informed-consent forms before submitting to an HIV test, while the agency also plans to suggest eliminating or abbreviating requirements for often-lengthy pretest counseling, according to reports. The aim is to broaden the scope and simplify the process of HIV testing to reach more infected people as early as possible. The CDC estimates about 25 percent of the one million people now infected with HIV in the U.S. are unaware that they carry the virus, and may not find out until after they've unknowingly infected others and/or the infection progresses to the potentially lethal symptoms of AIDS.
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