Development of the Guideline for HIV Testing in South Korea with Low Prevalence of HIV-1 Infection Based on the Expert Consensus

Purpose: This study was conducted to develop a guideline for HIV testing in South Korea where the HIV prevalence is very low. It is necessary to make the recommendations presented here based on the epidemiology of opportunistic infection and cancer in the community. Methods: The development of a guideline for HIV testing was conducted using literature reviews and the agreement of Korean experts for HIV patients using a two-round Delphi consensus technique. Each expert was asked to independently answer to each item related to HIV risk. Ten experts participated in the two-round survey. Results: The individual items were determined based on the following categories: high risk behavior, symptom and diseases, colo-rectal diseases, uro-genital diseases and gynecology, skin and oral diseases. The final guideline consisted of 4-scale agreement rating (strongly recommended, recommended, not routinely recommended, no recommendation for routine provision). Discussion: We have developed the guideline for HIV testing in a country where the HIV prevalence is low based on a systematic investigation and expert consensus.