Home HIV test kit out

By Francis Kagolo              
                                       
Testing for HIV/AIDS has become easier. Anyone will be able to test to see if they are HIV positive in the comfort of their own homes, thanks to a new home test kit invented in the US.

 Codenamed OraQuick, the kit detects the presence of HIV in saliva collected using a mouth swab. The test is designed to return a result within 20 to 40 minutes.

 The machine was manufactured by Orasure, a Pennsylvania-based lead maker of oral fluid diagnostic and collection devices, and approved last week by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Dr. Joshua Musinguzi, the HIV/AIDS control programme manager in the ministry of health, said the home test kit was a great innovation in the fight against the HIV pandemic. He said it can reduce infections.

“The home test kit is a good product which can improve on a lot of things especially because it does not need blood specimen,” Dr. Musinguzi said.

Testing is one of the chief means of slowing new infections, which have steadily increased in Uganda from 124,000 annually, as of 2009, to 130,000 today.

The health ministry estimates 40 percent, or about 13,600, 000 people, of the 34 million Ugandans do not know their HIV status.

A number of people, including key players in the HIV fight, applauded the home testing technology, saying it would help reduce new infections.

The latest Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey (UAIS) report released last month indicated that Uganda’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has shot up from 6.4% in 2005 to 7.3% today.

 The prevalence is higher among women (8.3%) than men (6.1%).

However, Musinguzi explained that although the home HIV test technology was important, Uganda was still reluctant to use it because it can confuse the public.

“The manufacturers of those machines have approached the Government seeking approval to market their products in Uganda,” he revealed.

 “But we fear that when you use saliva to test for HIV, people may think they can get the virus through saliva which is not true. So, we have no urgency to adopt that technology.”

A trial conducted by Orasure showed the home test only correctly detected HIV in those carrying the virus 92% of the time.
That means that the test could miss one person for every 12 HIV-infected people who use the kit.

The test was accurate 99% in ruling out HIV in patients not carrying the virus. That means the test would incorrectly identify one patient as having HIV for every 5,000 HIV-negative people tested.

FDA spokesperson Rita Chappelle emphasized the importance of making sure that the person who is taking the home tests follows the instructions for accurate results, and that they follow up with a medical setting confirmation regardless if they get a positive or negative result despite the test’s high accuracy rate.