Sixty-Second HIV Testing Now Available In The USA

On this National HIV Testing Day, more and more HIV-awareness clinics around the United States are offering a rapid HIV test that provides results in just 60 seconds.

Called the INSTI HIV-1 Antibody Test, this new HIV testing method eliminates the possibility that people getting HIV testing will lose their nerve and leave the clinic before they get their test results. About 1 in 3 people who get HIV tests never learn their results. With the new HIV testing method, both the testee and the counsellor get results at the same time.

The new testing method allows mobile AIDS outreach labs to reach far more people each day, and to devote time to helping people who get positive test results figure out what to do next. In San Antonio, Texas, where the San Antonio AIDS Foundation got the new technology in May 2013, deputy director Jill Rips that the foundation will be able to offer HIV testing and counselling to 5,000 people over the next 12 months, compared to just 3,000 last year.

Better HIV Testing as Well as Faster HIV Testing

AIDS treatment advocates point out that the INSTI HIV-1 Antibody test is not just faster than older HIV testing methods, it is better. In addition to producing results in far less time than the faster previously available HIV testing method, the new method is slightly more accurate. It produces accurate results 99.8% of the time, compared to a 99.6% accuracy of older methods.

The INSTI HIV-1 Antibody test costs only half as much as the older technology, US $7 to $8 per test, compared to $16-18 for the method it is replacing. And the new HIV antibody test can detect infection sooner, just four to six weeks after initial exposure. Older methods could only detect the presence of the virus three months after it entered the body, delaying prophylactic treatment that can change the course of the disease.

HIV Testing with Just a Finger Stick

Another advantage of the new HIV testing method is that it is not necessary to draw a vial of blood from a vein in the arm to run the test. A drop of blood from a quick and painless poke to a finger is all the test requires to make a determination of the presence of absence of the virus. The test could be done without the assistance of a registered nurse or phlebotomist, and does not require a full laboratory setup.

The test is slightly more accurate when blood is drawn from a vein, but venous blood only improves the accuracy rate from 99.8% to 99.9%. The chances of being told one has HIV when one does not, or being told one does not have HIV when one does, are just 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000. The test is not perfect, but it is the best test available in the United States at this time. Whether or not one tests positive for HIV, it is also possible to get a follow-up measurement of viral load, which is a good indication of whether the virus is present in the body but the immune system has not yet created antibodies to it.

Should You Get Tested For HIV?

Although HIV is not spreading as quickly as it was 20 to 30 years ago, every year, just in the United States, another 56,000 people contract the virus. HIV and AIDS treatment has vastly improved so that HIV infection has become more of a chronic condition than a death sentence, but it is still necessary to take the medications--often available at reduced cost or for free--that keep the virus at bay. People who don't know they have HIV don't take the medications that can prevent or treat AIDS.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimate that of the 1,100,000 Americans who have HIV, at least 200,000 are unaware they have the disease. Diagnosing the disease would help these 200,000 Americans make responsible choices to protect their sexual partners and to avoid infecting their children.

Experts recommend HIV testing for at-risk groups:

• Men who have sex with men, even once, even "just" oral sex, should have HIV testing. All gay and bisexual males who are sexually active should be tested for the disease.
• Women who have sex with me who have sex with men should be tested for HIV, even if they insist on the use of condoms. 
• People who share needles with others are at risk for HIV infection and should be tested for the virus. 
• People who have sex with people who share needles with others are likewise at risk for HIV testing and should be tested for the HIV virus.
• People of any sexual orientation who have had sex with more than one partner since their last HIV test should be tested for the virus. Men can pass HIV to women, and women can pass HIV to men.

There is a very common attitude among men who have sex with men that "guys who have HIV are never going to get rid of it, and guys who don't have HIV are never going to get it," regardless of sexual practices. It is typically long-term survivors of HIV who are the most lax about protecting their sexual partners. It is not unheard of for a man who has active AIDS, causing herpes-like skin reactions or perhaps AIDS-related dementia simply to wear clothes over blisters and recruit uninfected partners for sex, rationalizing that "just once" won't make a difference.

Just once actually is enough for transmission of the virus. And men who rationalize having sex "in" their partners rather than "on" their partners tend not to have sex just once.

HIV testing may be scary, but the effects of AIDS, which are largely avoidable, are scarier. It only takes a minute, literally, and the test that determines your HIV status may lead you to the measures that save your life.