Oral HIV tests less reliable than blood tests
Kim Johnson
27 January 2012
The accuracy of increasingly popular HIV home-testing kits is under scrutiny according to a report in The Times.
A study published in the Lancet online medical journal this week, revealed that the oral tests are 2 percent less accurate at detecting HIV antibodies than tests that use blood.
According to the article, home testing has become extremely popular in countries like Kenya and Uganda where confidentiality of HIV test results is a problem.
And while 2 percent less sensitivity might seem negligible, when oral testing kits are being used by millions of people, inaccurate results (especially false negatives) are potentially significant, according to Mark Sonderup of the South African Medical Association.
Internationally however articles have framed the issue in a completely different manner, choosing in a sense, to see the glass as half full. Articles on the study originating in India, the United Kingdom and Toronto take a more optimistic view of the results reporting that the study found that, "HIV 'saliva' test are as effective as a blood test".
Home or self-testing has previously been the subject of debate after the South African Medical Association warned against the practice, saying that people who tested themselves did not have access to counselling and support should they receive a positive result.
However the head of the HIV Clinicians Society, Dr Francois Venter, has been among those encouraging self-testing which he insists will result in less “AIDS exceptionalism”, fear-mongering and stigma around the condition.
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