Pathum Sookaromdee1, Viroj Wiwanitkit2. 1. TWS Primary Care Center, Bangkok, Thailand. 2. Department of Tropical Medicine, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, Hainan, China.
Sir,The anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) serology test is the widely laboratory investigation worldwide. The test is considered a confidential investigation, and the privacy is very important. The specific process for testing is needed. Pre- and post-test counseling is the basic practice.[1] Here, the authors summarize and report the information on anti-HIV serology status and pre- and post-test counseling within 1-year period, 2012, in a local healthcare center in Bangkok, Thailand. From overall, 2257 cases requesting for investigation and getting pretest counseling, only 2232 cases (98.9%) permitted to receive the anti-HIV serological test. From 2232 cases receiving the investigation, 1824 (81.7%) were seronegative (432 [194%] were in the window period) and 408 (18.3%) were seropositive. From these 2232 cases, only 1873 cases (83.9%) got posttest counseling. Focusing on posttest counseling, 79.6% of cases with seropositivity and 80.3% of cases with seronegativity got the counseling (but 1.64% of those with seronegativity and within window period got the posttest counseling). Based on this data, it can be seen that the problem in the lack of posttest counseling is not uncommon, and the problem is more frequent in the cases with seronegativity. Of interest, those with seronegativity and within window period usually get no posttest counseling. It is needed to find a method to increase the coverage of posttest counseling.[2]