HIV prevention in the context of care: HIV testing and public health practice.

In this article, an argument is put forth that clinic-based HIV testing can function as an important aspect of public health HIV prevention. This assertion is not an outright declaration that all HIV testing is beneficial. Instead, it is the conclusion that the individual-focused initiative of HIV testing could, if structured properly, induce population-level HIV prevention benefits. This analysis was informed using the impact fraction model, the Anderson-May equation, current epidemiological information about HIV from Canada, the United States, and England, and the extant literature on the dynamics of HIV transmission. This conclusion could help inform the development of public and population health HIV testing and HIV prevention policies/practices.