HIV testing

HIV testing features

• Quality of health services is key in encouraging or discouraging people from HIV testing in Africa

  The uptake of HIV testing in sub-Saharan Africa is influenced by the quality and manner in which health services are delivered, according to a review of 42 qualitative...

  From:  News

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  Tales of the late diagnosed

  Gus Cairns talks to four people who were diagnosed with HIV only just in time to save their lives – and the daughter of one who wasn’t. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Point-of-care (POC) diagnostics are essential to achieving an AIDS-free generation and improving outcomes in HIV-exposed children

  This edition reviews recent evidence on point-of-care testing, on tests in development, and looks at experience of optimising performance of dried blood spot sampling....

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  HIV home tests – how will they be used?

  This week the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test, which will be sold over the counter and used without medical supervision, received its final approval from the Food and...

  From:  News

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  Happy families

  Sally Farthing is an HIV specialist midwife at West Middlesex Hospital in Isleworth, west London. She praises the measures – and the mothers – who together have sent...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  "How can the world accept us if we don't?" Improving testing rates in the UK African community

  HIV testing and late diagnosis rates in the UK African community will not improve unless we look at the wider reasons people don’t test, a community meeting...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Don’t live in ignorance: how do we expand HIV testing?

  Should everyone take an HIV test? Gus Cairns investigates. ...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Test early, test often…how could the UK improve its HIV testing rates?

  Although rates are improving, gay men in the UK still take HIV tests less often than their counterparts in comparable countries, and nearly half of African men with...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Scaling up HIV testing and counselling towards universal access: what works in resource-limited settings?

  This issue looks at the diverse possibilities and challenges for expanding HIV testing and counselling as well as policy and practice in resource-poor settings. ...

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  Universal testing and immediate treatment could cut HIV infections by 95% in 10 years

  This issues looks at  WHO's modelling study proposing universal testing and immediate treatment could cut HIV infections by 95% in 10 years in a generalised...

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

HIV testing in your own words

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  A senior moment: sero-conversion late in life

  I’m a senior citizen and a gay man living with HIV. I’m not the only gay HIVer of my generation, of course, but I’m perhaps different from...

  From: In your own words

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  Fifteen years on

  'Can I have my children tested?’ I managed to mumble those words. The doctor had just given me my HIV test results; I was positive....

  From: In your own words

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  Better off knowing

  'Have you looked in the mirror?’ the GP asked me. I thought he must be a bit mad! I had only just managed to drag...

  From: In your own words

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  Finding a better place

  I am in a much better place now than I was before HIV. To explain, I need to take you back to those days before the diagnosis....

  From: In your own words

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  Finding out

  The day was 9th of November, 2009; I was having my college lesson on the concepts of computer script languages – what a day it...

  From: In your own words

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  Seroconversion

  I was given my diagnosis over the telephone after spending four days in hospital with meningitis. I now realise it wasn’t meningitis, it was an...

  From: In your own words

HIV testing news from aidsmap

• Dramatic improvements in HIV testing are possible – local leadership and multiple initiatives required

  In Brighton & Hove the proportion of new HIV diagnoses which are made outside of sexual health and antenatal clinics has increased from 25.7% in 2000 to 57.8% in 2012, driven by improvements in HIV testing in primary care ...

  16 May 2013 | Roger Pebody

• Engagement with health care leads to more prompt HIV diagnosis and higher rates of virological suppression among gay men

  Pre-existing connection with primary health care is associated with more prompt diagnosis of HIV infection and an increased likelihood of virological suppression one year after diagnosis among gay men, investigators from the United States report in AIDS Patient Care ...

  16 May 2013 | Michael Carter

• Training for GPs can increase HIV testing rate

  A multifaceted educational intervention for doctors and practice nurses working in general practice in London led to a tripling in the number of HIV tests provided, researchers report in an open-access article in the May issue of Sexually Transmitted Infections. Guidelines ...

  22 April 2013 | Roger Pebody

• Treating everyone diagnosed would not end HIV in US gay men, Los Angeles-based model finds

  Increasing HIV testing frequency, and giving everyone antiretroviral therapy (ART), would not in themselves reduce HIV prevalence in US gay men, a mathematical model suggests. These measures would produce, in the model’s baseline scenario, a 34% reduction in the cumulative ...

  11 April 2013 | Gus Cairns

• No increase in sexual risk taking by gay men in England, 2001 to 2008

  Analysis of Gay Men’s Sex Survey data shows that, overall, the proportion of men reporting unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) did not change between the 2001 and 2008 surveys. There was an increase in the number of men with diagnosed ...

  10 April 2013 | Roger Pebody

• Review shows HIV self-testing to be acceptable, accurate and feasible, but finds little data on linkage to care for those testing HIV positive

  Self-testing for HIV is highly acceptable to people in a variety of settings, investigators report in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine. The authors reviewed the results of 21 separate studies and found an acceptability rate of up to 100%. Self-testing ...

  04 April 2013 | Michael Carter

• Recruitment through social networks is an efficient way to increase demand for HIV testing among high-risk groups

  A pilot project which used a peer recruitment strategy, financial incentives and the involvement of people living with HIV has demonstrated that this approach can increase demand for HIV testing services and efficiently identify people with HIV, report Sandra ...

  29 March 2013 | Roger Pebody

• Quality of health services is key in encouraging or discouraging people from HIV testing in Africa

  The uptake of HIV testing in sub-Saharan Africa is influenced by the quality and manner in which health services are delivered, according to a review of 42 qualitative studies, published this month in BMC Public Health. Perceived problems with confidentiality, ...

  26 March 2013 | Roger Pebody

• French researchers report 14 patients in 'remission' after controlling HIV for over 4 years off treatment

  Two weeks ago, the announcement that a baby had been ‘functionally cured’ of HIV disease with the use of very early antiretroviral therapy (ART) caused great excitement at the start of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2013). ...

  16 March 2013 | Gus Cairns

• Participation in community groups increases uptake of HIV testing services in Zimbabwe

  Membership of community organisations is associated with increased rates of HIV testing and uptake of services to prevent mother-to-child transmission, according to the results of research conducted in Zimbabwe and published in the online edition of AIDS. However, there ...

  05 March 2013 | Michael Carter

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HIV testing news selected from other sources

• England: Joint directors of public health will be weak in the job

  In principle, I support the handover of public health to local authorities. But, in practice, because the government has become so preoccupied with reform of the NHS, this handover spells real danger.

  03 May 2013 | The Guardian

• Why Australia needs home-based HIV testing

  Getting people tested more often is crucial in reducing HIV infections. With rapid HIV testing recently approved for a trial in Australia, experts are now pushing for the approval of home-based HIV testing.

  03 May 2013 | Gay News Network

• Colombian antenatal HIV testing rates reveal health insurance paradox

  The introduction of subsidized health insurance for poor people in Colombia resulted in decreased access to HIV tests in antenatal care, research shows. The study results also highlight that levels of antenatal HIV testing remain low in the country, despite it being introduced as standard into national insurance programs in 2000 as part of a strategy to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

  29 April 2013 | Medwire News

• UK: NHS funding crunch creates a challenge for GPs to improve public health

  The recent reforms to the English NHS present opportunities for GPs and other primary care staff to lead a more proactive approach to prevention and helping people remain healthy into old age but only if they are empowered to do so, argues a new report.

  26 April 2013 | Nuffield Trust

• Botswana: Compulsory HIV tests coming, are you ready?

  Last week Thursday, marked a sad day in the history of human rights. Parliament rejected all amendments aimed at ensuring that being HIV positive does not take away one's dignity. Parliament decided to entrench the violation of human rights, even more so, the rights of those living with HIV.

  08 April 2013 | Mmegi Online

• Kenya: Ministry Buys Unapproved HIV Test Kits

  The Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation has announced the adoption of new HIV testing test kits that have not been approved by the World Health Organisation. "We fear that considerations other than to have the best kits available to Kenyans may be at play," said a doctor on condition of anonymity.

  03 April 2013 | AllAfrica

• Commissioning HIV Testing Services in England: a practical guide for commissioners

  This toolkit is designed primarily for the many individuals and organisations who will have some responsibility for the commissioning of HIV testing services. But more broadly it will also be useful for the wide range of professionals and bodies with a responsibility for planning local health strategies and improving the quality of healthcare.

  02 April 2013 | NAT

• Dr Alan McOwan: Testing times

  You are safer having unsafe sex with someone who is HIV positive and being treated than with someone who doesn’t know their status, says Dr Alan McOwan

  20 February 2013 | Gay Star News

• Routine HIV Testing in U.S. Healthcare Settings?

  Despite the 2006 CDC recommendation, offering routine HIV testing is not universal — even among HIV care providers.

  12 February 2013 | Journal Watch

• Tapping into online communities brings dramatic results in health

  Operated by the Chelsea and Westminster hospital's sexual health centre in Soho, 56 Dean Street, in conjunction with the remote healthcare specialist DrThom and the gay dating site Gaydar, the Dean Street at Home initiative uses the principles of online marketing to diagnose HIV efficiently through careful targeting.

  07 February 2013 | The Guardian

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