Impact of a structured medical staff education program on the effect of HIV testing in four multi-specialist hospitals of the mazowieckie voivodeship as a part of the "Stop late presenters" - project.

In half of newly detected cases of HIV infection in Europe, the diagnosis is made late. This has significant impact on the effects of antiretroviral therapy, long-term consequences of the disease, mortality, and the risk of HIV transmission in the environment. As part of the large "STOP Late Presenters" project, the number of HIV tests was assessed in four multi-specialist hospitals in the Mazowieckie voivodeship, which generally carry out over 112,000 hospitalizations per year. First, under the structured research program, the training of medical personnel was carried out in these hospitals, and then the number of HIV tests ordered was evaluated 2 months and 4 months after the training. 459 HIV tests were performed after the training in all hospitals, which is 2.44% of hospitalizations. It is interesting to note that after 4 months, the number of performed tests fell significantly. Staff training resulted in the number of tests higher by 5.8 %, compared to the same period of previous year. Four positive results were confirmed, which is 0.87% of all tests done. This is almost twice higher than in other European countries. Tests for HIV infection are most often ordered by doctors of infectious diseases, gynecologists and the staff of dialysis departments. We found that there is little interest in HIV testing among other specialists, despite reporting patients with clinical symptoms that suggest the likelihood of this infection. The improvement in HIV testing is of great importance for public health in our country and requires modification of diagnostic algorithms in hospital wards to reduce the number of late diagnoses of HIV / AIDS.