How is Austin HIV Diagnosed?
People often believe that if they had laboratory tests, they are also tested for HIV or STD. This is completely incorrect. If you had to go to a lab test to check on your cervix, the test is strictly concentrated on your cervix health. It will not carry any results regarding STDs. The only way to check if one has STD is through an accurate STD testing.
HIV, being one of the most dangerous diseases among STDs can also be tested through a reliable HIV testing. This is the only way to be sure if one is infected or not. There are lots of methods of testing now available in the different health clinics and STD or HIV testing clinics.
Some local STD testing is done in local health centers and may need urine or blood samples from patients. Results may come out after a few weeks. Other clinics offer quick or rapid STD testing which provides results within twenty minutes or so. For people who do not want be revealing their personal information while taking the test may go the private HIV or STD testing clinics for more confidentiality.
For HIV cases, most people do not know that they are already infected and their condition is already severe. This happens because HIV shows no symptoms or signs. For people who have multiple sex partners, have an active sex life and do not use latex protection during sex, then an STD test is recommended. This is to make sure of what their health condition is. Once HIV is detected early, medications to control the increase its extent may be given. Treatment given to HIV patients may not be for cure but for control and better life of the patient. The patient may not feel the effects of HIV through the medications.
As well known, HIV can lead to AIDS. Both of these diseases are fatal and they are never an easy thing to deal with. This is why it is important for one to be tested immediately to make sure that the situation of getting AIDS becomes farther.
If one is having doubts of having HIV or STD, confidential STD or HIV testing may be done to give the patients more privacy about their health condition. It is hard to face the stigma attached to HIV or STD when getting the test. This is why some people would just want to keep their situation to themselves in private.
There is lots of STD testing clinics that offer help whichever way you want to be tested. They offer accurate STD testing, counseling, treatment and sometimes others even offer a more affordable STD testing to provide more help to other people.
With all of those tests available and ready to help others, there is no reason to keep one’s health problem to themselves. These STD testing clinics are existing because many people are concerned of the fact that STDs has become a big problem in the society today. Stop the rise of STDs, take the test now!
Watch a video related to rapid hiv testing
***GET FREE RAPID (20 MIN.) HIV TESTING @ APICHA AND GET A $20 MOVIE THEATER GIFT CARD!!*** Whether or not you’ve had sex or think you’re at risk for HIV, everyone should get tested! Knowing your status means knowing yourself. It means better, more honest relationships; better health; better sex! A better life!! This PSA was created by APICHA (The Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS) to show the ease in which someone can receive an HIV test. The narrator (played by East Grace Lee …
Comments and questions related to rapid hiv testing
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runforthehills Said,
April 27, 2008 @ 1:02 am
1. The negative predictive value is not just a function of its sensitivity, it is also a function of the the actual rate of HIV infection in the population you are testing. The sensitivity of the SUDS test is 99.4%, but the negative predicitive value depends on whether you're testing a high prevalence or low prevalence population.
Let me illustrate:
Leaving specificty aside for a moment,
If you test 1 million people, 1% of whom actually have HIV, you would expect 990,000 negative tests. However a test with 99.4% sensititivity will miss 60 out of 10,000 that should have been positive. That means 60 out of 990,060 negative tests were wrong – there is a 0.00606% chance (roughly 1 in 16,000) a negative is a false negative.
If 100% of your million population have HIV you would expect 0 negative tests. However the test misses 0.6% of true positives, so in fact you would get 6,000 (false) negatives – and there is a 100% (1 in 1) chance that any negative is a false negative. This is why you need to know the background prevalence of a condition before you can interpret the chances that any given negative test is a true or false negative.
If the true prevalence of what your testing for is 0.3% (as is HIV in the US population) a test with 99.4% sensitivity will result in 1 in 55,000 negatives being false negatives.
Of course no test is totally specific either – there will be fewer negatives because some will be false positives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_predictive_value
2. Yes. All screening tests for HIV sacrifice specificity to maximise sensitivity. This is why a diagnosis should not be made on a positive screening test alone. You need a two step algorhythm for adequate specificty in most populations.
3. Not quite: it is the ELISA plus WB (the two step algorhythm) which provides the specificity, not just the WB alone.
4. No it's not the same, but they are believed to have comparable accuracy.