New Recommendation by American Academy of Pediatrics - sexually active teens should be screened for HIV

Today I came across the following article my friend linked to on facebook:

Group calls for HIV screening of teens who have sex

Basically it talks about the new policy statement released Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics where in they recommend that all sexually active adolescents should be screened for HIV.

The statistic that half of all new infections in the US occur in individuals between 13 and 24 has been around for a long time.  It's about time that the AAP made this recommendation.  In the world we live in, in relation to HIV, being young, naive and fearless is a risk factor gay or not.  How many of us made stupid decisions when we were younger?  How many of us have ever had sex without a condom without a recent STD/STI screening from our partner?  How many of us have failed to even ask about a partners sexual history as it relates to being tested?  Someone somewhere answered yes to at least one of those questions and it doesn't make them a bad person.  It just makes them part of the majority.  A lot of those mistakes happened when we were under 24, a lot of them still happen when we're older.  Some of those mistakes are made because we don't have the confidence, the dialogue and the tools to have those discussions.  Add an undiagnosed HIV+ individual to the mix and it is easy to see how that statistic is possible.

Coming out publicly about my HIV status when I was 20 and working with organizations that deal with HIV positive individuals has allowed me to meet and talk with HIV positive people from a variety of different backgrounds and opinions.  I need more than two hands to count how many people, like myself had HIV as a virgin or as a young adult.  Some of those people had parents that chose not to tell them they were HIV+ until they were 16 and explained their medicine away as allergy meds.  I've met a couple of people that just happened to have an HIV test as part of an extra credit assignment for class and one as part of being supportive to a friend who were shocked to find out they had HIV when they never had sex.  In one case it led to a person's mother getting tested and finding out she was HIV+ as well.  By no means am I trying to scare people, these cases are few and far between.  I am just aware of their stories because they reached out to me because we share a virus.  Eventually these people had sex or are going to have sex.  In these cases they became aware of their diagnosis and are able to make informed decisions.  In too many cases people remain naive to their HIV+ status.

This recommendation is a step in the right direction, and I hope that health professionals and parents take it to heart and make it a routine part of an annual checkup.

I welcome any and all thoughts related to this issue :)