FDA approves first take-home HIV test
By The Week Staff | July 3, 2012
An HIV testing center in Washington, D.C.: An at-home kit that can detect the virus through saliva is likely to sell for under $60.
Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
T
he Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to the first over-the-counter home HIV test that doesn't require blood. OraQuick, which is made by parent company Orasure, uses mouth swabs to determine the presence of the virus, which affects 1.2 million people in the U.S. alone. "The availability of a home-use HIV test kit provides another option for individuals to get tested so that they can seek medical care," says Dr. Karen Midthun, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. The test, however, is not 100 percent accurate, and could miss one person for every 12 HIV-infected people who use the kit.
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