(COLUMBIA, Mo.) – To prevent the further spread of HIV, a test for the virus might become part of a routine check-up. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation on Sept. 21 that all 13- to 64-year-olds be tested for HIV.

A news release from the CDC states that the recommendation is meant to contain and eventually eradicate the disease in the United States. The release also states that universal testing would inform unknowing disease carriers and allow them to access treatment earlier and reduce the possibility of spreading the infection.

Michael Cooperstock, a University of New Mexico Hospital and Clinics doctor specializing in pediatric infectious diseases, said he thinks regular HIV testing would help start eradicating the disease.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Cooperstock said. “Anything that can be done to prevent this disease ought to be done and anything to get people to get tested ought to be done. It’s a recommendation that will have a strong influence on practitioners, and it’s a fair kind of thing to do because it’s done as an opt-out question.”

An opt-in question requires doctors to ask a patient for permission to conduct a test. An opt-out question requires the patients to ask doctors not to perform the test after they receive the list of procedures for the exam.

Cooperstock said an opt-out HIV test would be more effective.

“An opt-in question will have a much lower participation rate than an opt-out question,” he said.

Junior Angela Ching-Yi Yang, a member of Stronger Together Against Rape, which is an organization that urges people to practice safer sex, said she thinks the recommendation is a good idea but would be tough to put into practice.

“I guess it’s a good idea essentially, but at the same time, I don’t think there’s a way to get everybody to take the test and also that it’s sort of an invasion of people’s privacy,” she said. “People can always find a way to avoid it.”

Jean-Luc Benoit, a member of the University of Chicago Hospital’s infectious diseases section and the director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship program, said he thinks the recommendation will change.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it will change over time,” Benoit said. “The question is will this be effective.”

Benoit said that though testing seems like a good idea to slow the spread of HIV, more education on safer sex would also help.

“The idea behind the recommendation is that if you know they have HIV, they will transmit it less, but that’s probably true,” he said. “A better way to fight the disease would be for physicians to ask the right questions and for there to be more education about safe sex. There needs to be more of an emphasis on using condoms than there is.”

Cooperstock also said he thinks the recommendation is a good idea but educating people about the dangers of unprotected sex is a better way to fight the spread of HIV.

“The number of new cases that we see has dropped, but it has not dropped to zero,” he said. “This is because public education has taught people to use barrier protection to avoid the disease.”