A clinical opportunity for routine HIV testing

Thank you for publishing the editorial "Seek and Treat to Optimize HIV and AIDS Prevention."1 This article raises a number of important points about HIV screening but unfortunately contains a significant error. That "Canada has no recommendation for routine [HIV] testing outside of prenatal screening and screening of the blood supply."1 is simply not the case. That routine HIV testing of patients with tuberculosis (TB) was overlooked must have been unintentional. The World Health Organization continues to recommend routine, universal HIV testing of patients with TB because much of the global resurgence of TB in recent years is attributable to HIV and the synergy between these diseases. In Canada, multiple official statements and peer-reviewed publications dating back to 1992, have recommended routine, universal HIV testing of patients with TB.2-7 In Alberta, where universal HIV testing of patients with TB has been applied since 2003, population and age groups with extraordinarily high rates of disease have been identified.