3. Promoting HIV Testing in Diverse Populations
Summary
HIV testing is done by either a point-of-care or a laboratory-based technique. Point-of-care tests use either an oral fluid (simpler to collect and more readily acceptable to most patients) or blood specimen taken from the patient, with the test done onsite. Laboratory-based testing requires a blood specimen that is submitted to a laboratory. With point-of-care testing, results are typically available in 10 to 20 minutes, whereas results from laboratory-based testing may not be available for several days.
If the result of either type of test is positive, it must be confirmed, generally by sending the specimen to a laboratory for further evaluation (typically done automatically if the initial test is laboratory-based). A negative result—whether point of care or laboratory-based—is generally considered to be definitive—unless a patient is experiencing symptoms of acute HIV infection.
For patients with a positive result from a point-of-care test, the practitioner can have an initial discussion regarding access to care. With the much more common negative finding using a point-of-care test, the practitioner can then provide counseling about safer sex and/or injection-drug practices, as appropriate.
Healthcare practices that are planning to implement routine HIV testing programs can access a number of web-based resources that can be used to plan the program, to train staff members, and to remain up to date on current and new technologies.
