AIDS tests should be easy to get and confidential, recommends the CDC. In fact, the agency recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 should have an HIV screening at least once, and people at high risk should be tested annually.

Many people are infected but do not know it, says the agency. CDC estimates that as many as 70 percent of new infections may occur because people unwittingly transmit the virus to others. About 40,000 new cases occur annually in the US. An estimated 250,000 individuals do not know they are HIV-positive.

HIV still carries a heavy stigma, and, as a consequence, many people avoid having a test. There has been a great deal of controversy over the competing goals of providing patients with privacy and pooling data among healthcare and government officials in order to track down partners who may have been exposed.

The tests should be voluntary and easy, urges the CDC. That is, there should be no requirement to have signed consent forms or long counseling sessions prior to administering the test. Patients should be informed as to the nature of the test. Anyone who tests positive should be informed about the seriousness of the disease and be offered help obtaining treatment, as well as information about how to avoid infecting others.

The individual states would have the option of modifying the program under the CDC proposal.

In the past, some individuals may have felt that they would rather not know if they had AIDS, because the prognosis was so poor. However, there have been major treatment advances in recent years, allowing many HIV-positive and AIDS patients to control the disease. Early identification of the infection is crucial.