Self-Testing Easy And Accurate

 

According to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, self-testing for a serious condition can be easy, accurate and acceptable to many people.

The study showed that more than 99 percent of HIV results obtained via self-testing matched those by hospital workers. According to Johns Hopkins researcher Charlotte Gaydos, DrPH, participants had no trouble distinguishing between positive and negative results.

Nearly all participants said they would "definitely or probably recommend" self-testing to a friend and would "probably or definitely" perform a test at home if it were available, Dr. Gaydos remarked in an article on WebMD. With further study, she went on to say, home testing for HIV might one day be as routine as pregnancy testing.

"Rapid HIV testing works by detecting antibodies against HIV, just like the kits used by health care workers for routine HIV testing," says Larry Siebert, CEO of Chembio Diagnostics. Siebert went on to note that rapid, point-of-care (POC) tests such as those his company develops are single test cartridges, similar to pregnancy tests, that use a small sample of oral fluid or whole blood and deliver a visual result in approximately 20 minutes--and one may serve as a viable at-home HIV test.

"The hope for this test is that it can help identify those HIV-positive individuals who are unaware of their status and motivate them to seek immediate medical attention and early treatment," says Siebert. Learn more.