San Francisco Thwarts HIV With Wide Testing, Universal Treatment

If you show up at the emergency department at San Francisco General Hospital — for any reason — there’s a good chance they’ll offer you an HIV test.

It’s part of a big push, in a city closely associated with the AIDS pandemic, to find nearly all people infected with the virus and get them in treatment right away.

Nurse Diane Jones at San Francisco General says 4 percent of patients tested in the emergency room are positive for HIV. And many of these newfound infections are not among gay men, who still make up 90 percent of San Francisco’s HIV epidemic.