SACRAMENTO – HIV testing will be a routine part of physical exams next year under a law by Assemblywoman Patty Berg that experts say is the biggest step forward in the fight against AIDS in decades.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Berg’s Assembly Bill 682 into law Friday. It will take effect Jan. 1, 2008.

The law will not force anyone to be tested for HIV. It simply eliminates the requirement that patients sign a consent form before a test.

“It’s a simple change that will have a big impact,” said Berg, D-Eureka.

Health experts say as many as 40,000 people in California are unaware they carry the virus that causes AIDS. Many of them won’t find out until they seek care for another illness. That means those people will miss out on years of treatment that could dramatically extend and improve their lives.

“This is the most significant shift in HIV policy in over a decade,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “We believe that many states will follow California's lead.”

Doctors have said that they are less likely to provide testing when patients have to fill out a form. The new law is expected to result in earlier detection of the virus and better care for patients. Doctors will still have to tell patients that they would like to add HIV to the list of other conditions for which they are testing, and patients can simply decline if they don’t want testing.

“The idea that we don’t detect and treat this disease because of some social stigma about testing is ridiculous,” said Berg. “Knowledge is power, and this is a perfect example.”

Studies have shown that people with HIV often go undetected and untreated even when they are receiving medical care for other diseases. Even as recently as 2004, 39 percent of HIV patients were unaware of their status until they were less than a year away from being diagnosed with full-blown AIDS.

“This simple yet historic change will help stem the spread of HIV and will ensure that more people receive treatment,” said Anmol S. Mahal, president of the California Medical Association. “After years of treating HIV differently than other diseases, we need a cultural shift to ensure that HIV screening becomes routine, and AB 682 is a critical step in that direction.”

The Center for Disease Control estimates that more than a million Americans are living with HIV, but nearly 250,000 don’t know it. In California, the State Office of AIDS estimates that about 40,000 Californians don’t know they are carrying the virus.

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