AURORA | In the wake of the HIV at-home test that won federal approval last week, doctors across the metro area say they will have to make a more concerted effort to get people with a positive diagnosis connected to care.
The rapid, take-home HIV test called OraQuick was approved by the Food and Drug Administration July 3.
While doctors are thrilled that the at-home test will be on the market this fall, they also say they now have to make it a priority to reach out to the people who use the test and find out they have a positive diagnosis.
“The key is going to be to educate the community on the resources available,” said Mark Thrun, director of STD and HIV prevention and control at Denver Public Health. “There are people that are going to find out they have HIV in their living room, and they need to know what the next step is.”
Thrun said that awareness campaign will include educating people of the fact that there is a team of counselors specifically available to walk people through the steps of treatment.
The counselors are available by phone, and they’ll answer questions about finances and make appointments for newly diagnosed patients.
“We’re going to shift and begin to educate the community about those services,” Thrun said.
The company that makes the test, Orasure Technologies, is also planning on offering a toll-free call center to provide counseling and medical referrals to people who use the test.
OraQuick is the first over-the-counter test that allows people to test themselves for HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — in the comfort of their home.
It detects the presence of the virus in saliva and takes between 20 minutes and 40 minutes for the test to return a result.
Doctors are hopeful that more people will take the test because there will be less stigma associated with making an appointment with the doctor to get an HIV test.
“This is fantastic,” Thrun said. “It’s a great opportunity. The more we can move testing services into the community and normalize those testing services, the greater likelihood that people are going to take the test and find out their HIV status.”
Thrun said there are about 11,000 people in Colorado that have been diagnosed with HIV. Government officials estimate that about 20 percent, or about 200,000 people, of the 1.2 million HIV carriers in the United States aren’t aware they’re infected.
OraQuick is the first at-home HIV test that delivers same-day results. In the mid-2000s, a rapid HIV test became available in pharmacies, but required the person to send a drop of their blood to a laboratory, Thrun said.
But with any home-test, the results aren’t 100 percent accurate, said Michelle Barron, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado Denver.
In trials, the home test correctly detects HIV in those carrying the virus 92 percent of the time, and was 99 percent accurate in ruling out HIV in patients not carrying the virus. “I think it’s important whenever you do any kind of test to know that information ahead of time,” she said.
Barron said the test makes it easier for people to maintain a level of privacy and confidentiality, but it shouldn’t become a substitute for a doctor’s visit.
“On the good side is the convenience and increased access, but the downside is that then you might miss some of the opportunities for counseling and for discussions that maybe need to go on,” Barron said.
While there’s still no cure for HIV, the chances of someone dying from the virus or developing AIDS from the virus are lower than they once used to be, Barron said.
Two decades ago, a diagnosis of HIV was a death sentence, she said.
“People consistently died, and it was really horrifying and sad to have to tell someone they had this infection and that there weren’t many options,” she said. “Now it’s a completely different world out there.”
There are now five different classes of medications available for the virus. But that shouldn’t cause people to take the illness lightly.
“There’s a whole generation of individuals that have never seen someone die from this, that they don’t necessarily see (HIV) as an issue,” she said.
Another positive consequence of the OraQuick at-home test is that it’ll hopefully lead to earlier diagnoses of HIV, which is important in the overall treatment of the virus, Barron said.
The progression of HIV is relatively slow. On average, it takes about 10 years for a person to develop full-blown AIDS from the time they get infected, Barron said.
“People say, well, I can’t possibly have it, and you’ll probably be OK until you’re not, when your immune system starts to lose the battle of the virus,” she said.
The test is slated to be available at retailers like CVS and Walgreens in October.
The company is not announcing a price yet, but said it would be less than $60.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.
The poor individuals who contract HIV through a blood transfusion are the real awful stories here. They’d had no chance, lived their lives honestly and true, went in to a ‘hospital’ and were given the virus, just awful
However, on the other side of the coin, the 98% or about, are the low-lives who have unprotected anal sex and then some share needles to inject themselves with heroin or other drugs and pass it around in their community. Yes, this is the same community of people who now have ‘hate laws’ and special names, like ‘gay’ approriated to them, never the stigma of shame that should be.