Available Home HIV Tests
The Boston Globe recently published the article, “The go-to person on HIV.” They interviewed Dr. Rochelle Walensky, one of the nation’s top thought-leaders on HIV testing. She pointed out that HIV/AIDS is no longer the death sentence that it was nearly two decades ago and that rather it is, “a chronic, manageable disease.”
The disease is not so manageable in other nations where access to highly-active antiretrovial drugs is limited. Here in the U.S. we are lucky. In a 2006 study, using mathematical models, she estimated that more than 3 millions years of life have been saved in the U.S. due to the availability of the needed drugs.
Unfortunately, in the U.S. the lack of testing is the biggest obstacle. However, why is the testing such an obstacle? Sure in some social-economical classes the cost of testing may present an obstacle. However, for the masses the testing is not only affordable but readily available.
There is one FDA-approved manufacturer of home HIV testing kits. Made by Home Access, these kits are available at local pharmacies and may be purchased anonymously on-line via merchants such as Home Health Screening, LLC at www.homehealthscreening.com. While the FDA has warned of the use of unapproved kits, the kits by Home Access are approved and provided for rapidly returned results via enclosed Federal Express shipping.
The biggest burden may be more due to consumer education and willingness for testing as the tests themselves are readily available.
