HEALTH REPORT – November 20, 2002: Quick HIV Test
By Jerilyn Watson
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved a fast new test for
H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. The OraQuick test shows results in as little as
twenty minutes. Experts say this means many more people probably will be tested.
Results from most current H-I-V tests take days or even weeks. The F-D-A says the
new test reports correct results almost one-hundred percent of the time.
OraSure Technologies Incorporated of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania developed the
OraQuick test It requires a single drop of blood from a person’s finger. The blood
is placed in a small container with a special liquid. A testing stick is placed in the
liquid.
The test finds if antibodies to H-I-V are present in the person’s blood. Antibodies are proteins the body
produces after an infection. However, people infected with H-I-V usually do not develop antibodies to the virus
for three months. So people at risk should be tested again if a first test does not show antibodies.
An estimated nine-hundred-thousand Americans are infected with H-I-V. But experts say up to twenty-five
percent of these people do not know they are infected. Currently, about half the people tested for H-I-V in public
health centers fail to return to learn the results of the test. Health officials say the new test will enable people with
H-I-V to start treatment sooner. People who know they have the virus also can change their sexual activities to
prevent spreading the virus to other people.
Health officials also say the OraQuick test may reduce the spread of H-I-V from mothers to newborn babies. A
pregnant woman could be tested before she gives birth. The test can also help health workers. It can tell if they
have been threatened by blood from infected patients. If so, the workers can start drug treatment immediately to
prevent getting the virus.
The F-D-A has approved the test for use in hospitals, medical centers and doctors’ offices that meet federal
laboratory requirements. But the government has asked the company that makes the test to request that these
requirements be eased. This would mean that many more health centers could give the test.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson praised the test as a very important step in
America’s fight against AIDS.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson.
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