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| Malik M.L. Williams administers the OraQuick HIV rapid test at
AID Atlanta on Tuesday. Test results are typically available within 20 minutes.
(Photo courtesy AID Atlanta)
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AIDS Memorial Quilt panel display
9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily
St. Oliver Plunkett Catholic Church
770-962-8396
www.aidgwinnett.org
Free HIV testing
12 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Free men’s STD clinic, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Both through Dec. 2
AID Atlanta
404-870-7700
www.aidatlanta.org
Free HIV testing
Through Dec. 2, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily
AIDGwinnett
770-962-8396
www.aidgwinnett.org
Free HIV testing & information
10 a.m.-noon and 5-7 p.m.
Georgia Perimeter College – Rockdale Center
770-962-8396
www.aidgwinnett.org
Taize prayer service and program
Nov. 30, 7:30-8:30 p.m.
St. Oliver Plunkett Catholic Church
770-962-8396
www.aidgwinnett.org
Our Common Welfare
Free rapid HIV testing, safe sex supplies, facility tour
8 a.m.-7 p.m.
404-284-9878
www.ourcommonwelfare.com
Free HIV and AIDS testing
9 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Aldredge Health Center
• College Park Regional Health Center
• St. Joseph Mercy Care
Fulton County Dept. of Health & Wellness
404-730-1468
www.myfultoncountyga.us
YouthPride Booth at AIDS Day Fair
10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Georgia Perimeter College – Clarkston Campus
404-378-7722
www.youthpride.org
AID Atlanta
• Health Exhibits & Workshops, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
• Free HIV Testing, 12-7 p.m.
• Free men’s STD clinic, 6-9 p.m.
• Lunch and door prizes
404-870-7700
www.aidatlanta.org
AID Atlanta Honors Gala
6:30 p.m. – 9 p.m.
• Food, cocktails, entertainment
Tickets: $60 general, $75 VIP
Atlanta History Center Museum
404-870-7730
www.aidatlanta.org
Free HIV testing & STD clinic
11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
AID Atlanta
Compiled by Van Gower
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: RYAN LEE
COMMENTS |
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Prior to last year, about one-third of publicly funded HIV tests in the U.S. were
a waste of time and money.
“Of the people who tested, about 32 percent never came back to get their
test results, so the effectiveness of testing at public health sites was impaired,”
said Bernard Branson, associate director for laboratory diagnostics at the Centers
for Disease Control & Prevention.
That’s because using the conventional blood test for HIV — known
as enzyme immunoassay, or EIA, tests — required clinics to draw blood
from a patient’s vein, send the sample to a laboratory to detect antibodies
to HIV and wait from a few days to two weeks for the results to return.
But in November 2002, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved OraQuick
— a rapid test that HIV activists and health researchers hope will help
revolutionize when and how people are tested for the disease that causes AIDS.
Manufactured by OraSure Technologies, OraQuick requires a drop of blood from
a patient’s finger to be mixed with a developing solution, and test results
are usually available within 20 minutes.
“The rapid test is wonderful because you’re able to give a person
their results and counseling essentially immediately after you’ve given
them the test,” said Stephen Kagan, a doctor at AbsoluteCare, an HIV clinic
in Atlanta. “It also enables you to screen a lot of people at the same
time.
“As a community service, we’re able to do a very large screening
and give them all results and counseling on the same day,” Kagan said.
About 95 percent of the clients who get tested at the Gay Men’s Health
Crisis in New York choose the OraQuick test, said Drew De Los Reyes, associate
director of the David Geffen Center at GMHC.
“For many people, the wait alone was enough of a barrier to keep them
from going in and getting tested,” De Los Reyes said. “[Now] they
all say what a relief it is for them not to have to wait.”
Tests that deliver results more quickly than traditional blood tests may help
to trim the estimated 180,000 to 280,000 Americans who are unaware they are
HIV positive, according to the CDC.
On the eve of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, HIV activists say it’s critical
that people know as early as possible if they are infected with the disease.
“It’s important because the sooner a person knows their HIV status,
the more effectively we can treat them,” said Greg Smith, director of
prevention services at AIDS Survival Project in Atlanta. “We can get them
into direct medical care so they will know over the long-term what they need
to do to stay healthy.”
Health experts and patients alike are hopeful that OraQuick’s rapid return
rate doesn’t appear to compromise the accuracy of the test results.
In clinical trials conducted by OraSure, OraQuick identified 99.6 of the people
who were infected with HIV, while correctly clearing 100 percent of the people
who were not infected.
CDC evaluations of the test since it appeared on the domestic market continue
to reveal that OraQuick is “extremely accurate,” Branson said.
But as popular as OraQuick is among community-based organizations and re-searchers,
its entry into clinics across the country was controversial, Branson said.
The FDA is responsible for categorizing all laboratory tests into one of three
categories depending on the degree of difficulty implementing the test —
high, moderate and waived — according to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement
Amendments of 1998, or CLIA.
While high and moderate tests must be conducted by doctors or other licensed
lab technicians and are subject to regular inspections, “tests waived
from the requirements of CLIA are tests that the FDA finds so simple and accurate
that there is little risk of an incorrect testing result,” according to
the FDA Web site.
In January 2003, the FDA granted OraQuick a CLIA waiver, opening the door for
HIV tests to be administered by clinical workers who complete a training program.
Many in the clinical laboratory industry objected to the FDA decision to grant
a waiver, “fear[ing] the agency’s move signaled a crack in the regulatory
dam” that would make it easier for other vital tests to receive a CLIA
waiver, according to an April 2004 report in the College of American Pathologists.
“There was a ...
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