FDA Panel Backs First Rapid, Take Home HIV Test 94
TheGift73 writes in with news about an over-the-counter HIV test getting the backing of a panel of FDA experts. "American consumers may soon be able to test themselves for the virus that causes AIDS in the privacy of their own homes, after a panel of experts on Tuesday recommended approval of the first rapid, over-the-counter HIV test. The 17 members of the Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted unanimously that the benefits of the OraQuick HIV test outweigh its potential risks for consumers. While the test, which uses a mouth swab to return a result in 20 minutes, does not appear to be as accurate as professionally-administered diagnostics, panelists said it could provide an important way to expand HIV testing. The FDA will make its final decision on whether to approve the product later this year, weighing the opinion of the panel."
Re:If we apply our logic fairly in the US... (Score:5, Informative)
Nailed it.
Here in Aus, you can get STI checks free, and they actually encourage you to get one every time you change partners. Not just for AIDS, but for Hepatitis and a couple of other more common diseases I think .
This also means there is a better chance of tracking down your partners and stopping whatever diseases you might have getting spread further. It also means if you do have a life threatening disease, you can get counselling to help you deal with this traumatic news and help stop you totally flipping out.
Overall it helps the community, because it prevents the further spread of disease, which would otherwise cost a lot more in the long term.
Having a test you do at home for this sort of life threatening disease, instead of getting a professionally administered one with appropriate counselling backup is the stupidest thing I ever heard of. If your coun
HIV transfer. (Score:4, Informative)
Your case raises the interesting issue of transmissibility.
It's been found through studies of cases like yours that 'vanilla' couples sex, where the partners are otherwise healthy apart from one being HIV+ have well under a percent (.3% IIRC) rate per act of transmitting HIV.
For anal, this rises to 30%.
The reproductive system - in the absence of sores or other problems due to other diseases - is remarkably good at protecting itself from disease.
Re:An inaccurate test (Score:5, Informative)
If you go to a lot of clinics, this is the exact same test they will give you there (OraQuick).
I've had this test done a few times and it always seems pretty brainless to do it. I don't think there's much risk of someone getting a false positive or false negative from something they did wrong. It's similar to a home pregnancy test I think... there's a thing that shows up whether its negative or positive, and if its positive then another thing would show up in addition to that.
In terms of accuracy and all that, they say it's like 99% as effective as the old way where they drew blood and shipped it off to a lab for 2 weeks.
Of course if someone did get a false positive, then they would probably go to a doctor for a more careful test.
And of course if someone is really obsessive compulsive about it and worried they have a false negative, they can buy a bunch and test themselves daily if they really wanted to.
The only effect I can see from this being made available is a LOT more people will know their status now. Or at least have a 99% clear indication.
The only downside really is that they won't get to talk to a doctor. A doctor would inform them about the time "window" between time of infection and the time it would show up on a test. If there are false negatives, that's where it would be from: People mistakenly thinking they can test for HIV the day after they might have been infected.