MX newspaper in Melbourne recently did a front-page story on a new HIV testing kit that may be offered for sale in local service stations and nightclubs.
I thought it was important to help bring a little perspective to the idea of home HIV tests, and to address how rapid HIV testing could be brought to Australia to help eliminate the scary and sometimes painful waiting period involved with traditional HIV tests.
Currently, HIV testing is offered via a visit to your local doctor or sexual health clinic. One of the main reasons is to allow for the important counselling and education that is an essential part of the testing.
If you have never had an HIV test, it鈥檚 important to understand that, in addition to the blood test, it鈥檚 vital to be able to have an open conversation about why you may wish to have the HIV test done in the first place.
A doctor or nurse trained in sexual health can help guide your understanding of not only HIV tests but also general sexual health and safe sex, and discuss other tests that may be worth having at the same time.
HIV tests are done via a blood test. Depending on where you go, there can be a wait of up to one week before you return for your results. Naturally this is a very long time to wait if you are worried, which has been a driving force behind the drive for rapid HIV testing kits.
These tests are available in the USA, with some kits able to offer very accurate test results within 30 minutes.
One concern I have is with the idea of rapid HIV tests being sold via vending machines.
If these tests were to be sold in nightclubs, for example, what is to stop someone from grabbing a test and using it in front of a potential sexual partner to 鈥榩rove they are HIV negative鈥�?
Given that these HIV tests are checking for antibodies, if the person is in the very early phase of HIV infection there is a chance the test may come back negative despite having high levels of HIV but no actual HIV antibodies to test for yet.
Without appropriate support and counselling, what might happen to the person if the test comes back positive?
Please don鈥檛 misinterpret what I am saying. I fully support rapid HIV testing but I feel it鈥檚 vital that it鈥檚 done in a safe and supported setting. That may be a doctor鈥檚 room, a sexual health clinic or even a special clinic designed for these tests.
I worry for those people who have testing done at home without someone present to explore why they want testing and what the results may mean.
There is also the issue of other tests like chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis. Other infections that are much easier to catch are very treatable and when found and treated, can reduce the rate of HIV infection as well.
The key is support, empathy and the importance of having someone there to help explain the testing and be able to guide further testing if results come back positive.
This does not need to be done by a doctor or even a nurse.
With proper training, caring members of the community can support each other in helping improve health outcomes and increased sexual health testing.
I understand that seeking testing can be scary. Certainly the current wait for results does nothing to reduce that fear.
It is my hope that with increased lobbying from the health sector, rapid testing will be available sooner rather than later. By having a quick, simple and supported testing facility available, the need for HIV tests from a vending machine will be unnecessary.
By DR GEORGE FORGAN-SMITH
General Practitioner
An excerpt from
I would point out that while it is true that these tests have long been available in the US, rapid tests for point of care testing are widely available around the world – even SLOVAKIA. Australia has truly fallen behind the times on this issue.
“This does not need to be done by a doctor or even a nurse.” a very condescending comment fron someone who is only a GP.
I am a very strong supporter of home testing kits, and have been using them for the past 3 years or so. And I know I am not the only person who simply HATES the idea/need for a doctor or nurse to know the results before me. Like me, there are many others who simply will not get tested in the normal (Australian) way because of the discomfort of the wait, and that my doctor might know my result before me.
The argument is constantly floated that if a Positive result arises then immediate counselling is on hand to support that person blah, blah, blah, blah. But like many others, I am an intelligent mature human being, who understamds the risks, who has a reasonable knowledge of infection and the processes that result.
Should I, with my imported home test kits, end up with a Positive result, then I want to know first, before anyone else. I DO NOT want someone hovering around worried that I will go into some kind of epilyptic fit, or have a heart attack. If a Positive result is the outcome, I WANT time to think about it for a few hours, then I will maturely make an appointment with my G.P. for a second test, explaining to him/her why I want the second more thorough test, and so life moves on.
For a LONG time, getting tested was avoided by me, as it still is by many others, for the reasons I have outlined. It was only after I found a way to obtain self-testing kits from overseas about three years ago that I began testing on a semi-regular basis… usually 3-4 times per year.
Isn’t that a FAR better outcome for everyone, than not getting tested at all, simply because of the need to see your G.P. first, and the paranoia that generates? I do accept that there are some personaility types who perhaps might freak out upon receiving a Positive result, and therefore maybe they need the immediate on-hand counselling. But I, like many others, take a far more mature approach to such a possible outcome.
So for the pannicky freak-out types then maybe they need to still have their tests done via their G.P.
But what about those of us with a more relaxed and mature attitude? I would perhaps prefer an arrangement whereby my G.P. had the power/authority to assess my personality and attitude to the possibility of a Positive result, and then be “approved” to purchase (much like a repeat medication prescription, perhaps…?) home self kits.
With a testing like this now available, it seems there is even less reason for the historical blanket “gay blood donation ban” by the Red Cross.
However, the idea that a medically, emotionally and socially sensitive test like this should be made available outside a clinical settings is an unwise one I reckon.