HIV testing

HIV testing features

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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

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  Main article: Making the world safe for more routine HIV testing

  Review of issues surrounding recommednations for more routine HIV antibody testing in resource-limited settings, including human rights arguments and proposals for mandatory testing, as well...

  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

• 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

• Many people with HIV not disclosing at GUM clinics: estimates of undiagnosed infections may be too high

  Many people with HIV are not disclosing their status when using sexual health clinics, according to the results of a study conducted at a large London genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic and published in Sexually Transmitted Infections. This could mean that ...

  19 February 2013 | Michael Carter

• Media campaign on acute HIV infection symptoms has limited impact

  A advertising campaign and website that aimed to raise awareness among gay men in Seattle, Washington, of the symptoms of acute HIV infection was recalled by a quarter of the target audience and had no impact on gay men’s ...

  14 February 2013 | Roger Pebody

• HIV incidence in gay men unchanged in England and Wales, despite more testing

  A paper in The Lancet Infectious Diseases by scientists from the UK’s Medical Research Council and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has calculated that the number of gay men in England and Wales who become infected with ...

  04 February 2013 | Gus Cairns

• HPA urges further action on HIV testing to reduce numbers undiagnosed and diagnosed late

  The Health Protection Agency (HPA) issued its annual epidemiological report yesterday, and drew particular attention to the need for improvement in HIV testing rates – six of its eight recommendations concern testing. The headline findings concerning new HIV diagnoses were reported ...

  30 November 2012 | Roger Pebody

• Very high rates of HIV infection among gay/bisexual male youths in the United States

  Over a quarter of new HIV infections in the US involve young people aged between 13 and 24, investigators report in the November 27th edition of MMWR Weekly Report. Approximately 75% of these infections involved gay and bisexual young ...

  29 November 2012 | Michael Carter

• Over-the-counter blood test for HIV may be feasible, Spanish study finds

  A study from Madrid has found that 92% of people taking an HIV test could obtain a valid result by testing themselves with the kind of fingerprick point-of-care blood test used at clinics, without any instruction except the brochure ...

  26 October 2012 | Gus Cairns

• Scale up of HIV testing in Africa isn't leading to breaches in consent or confidentiality

  Efforts to scale up HIV testing in sub-Saharan Africa have not resulted in breaches of patient rights or the provision of poorer services, results of a study published in PLoS Medicine suggest. The authors examined whether practices relating to ...

  26 October 2012 | Michael Carter

• More evidence that rapid ‘combination’ test often fails to detect acute HIV infection

  A rapid, point-of-care test, which aims to reduce the ‘window period’ through the detection of both antibodies and p24 antigen has poor performance in a UK clinical setting, Clifford Bryn Jones and colleagues report in the advance online edition ...

  23 October 2012 | Roger Pebody

• Regular HIV testing becoming the norm among gay men in Scotland

  The number of gay men testing for HIV in Scotland increased significantly between 2000 and 2010, a study published in HIV Medicine shows. The percentage of men reporting a test in the previous year increased from 27 to ...

  24 September 2012 | Michael Carter

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HIV testing news selected from other sources

• 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

• Is the UK Ready for HIV Home Testing Kits?

  Despite the logistical and regulatory minefield, I would argue that we need the option of home testing. What we are currently doing simply isn't working!

  07 February 2013 | Huffington Post

• Handheld mobile device performs laboratory-quality HIV testing

  A new handheld mobile device can check patients’ HIV status with just a finger prick, and synchronize the results in real time with electronic health records.

  21 January 2013 | Science Daily

• Japan: Number of home HIV tests sent for analysis via mail hits record 66000

  HIV tests sent by mail for paid analysis hit a record high in 2011, with the number roughly half that of tests conducted free of charge at designated facilities nationwide, a research team of the health ministry said Monday.

  03 January 2013 | The Japan Times

• Israel's Health Ministry denies pharmacists’ bid to perform HIV tests

  Cites ‘complexity and sensitivity of care in the AIDS field.'

  03 January 2013 | Haaretz

• BBC investigation uncovers illegal HIV testing kits

  A BBC investigation has found HIV home testing kits widely available online - including on Britain's biggest online retailer Amazon.

  21 December 2012 | BBC

• Rapid test for HIV approved in Australia

  Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek announced the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) had approved for marketing the Alere Determine Combo HIV 1/2 Ag/Ab test, which will give people a preliminary result within 30 minutes.

  17 December 2012 | The Australian

• UK team receives funding to develop HIV detection device

  A British team is developing a handheld device for detecting HIV in the early stages of infection. The researchers claim that this will combine the speed of existing point-of-care testing devices.

  13 December 2012 | The Engineer

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