*** TB AND RAPID HIV TESTING / A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN ? ***
The changing enviroment for Rapid Testing.
Suddenly, rapid HIV testing is on the horizon. So is the prospect that SOON everyone from the public health TB clinic nurses to outreach workers will be able to administer a fingerstick test for HIV. Experts say that within the next two years, a new generation of inexpensive whole blood tests for HIV will begin trickling into the U.S. market
The U.S. Public Health Service has resolved to issue new recommendations urging that health care providers be allowed to administer rapid HIV tests and to give out positive results without making the patient wait for a confirmatory follow-up test, says Bernard M. Branson MD,MPH who is the chief architect of the new recommendations.
In effect , the new recommendations should entice many rapid tests onto the American market. CDC research abroad shows that two rapid tests paired together correctly can give sensitivity and specificity ratings approaching, or equal to , 100%, says Dr. Branson and other CDC experts.
Knowing TB patients' HIV status will have many repercussions regarding how providers go about diagnosing and treating TB disease and in how they treat instances of TB infection or close contacts, says Bruce Davidson, MD head of the NTCA in Atlanta
Davidson and others say the rapid tests may overcome widespread reluctance which appears to affect both health care providers and patients to venture into the arena of HIV testing. That reluctance probably accounts for why HIV status is known for ONLY about 30 % of TB cases in the United States , says Dr. Davidson.
We don't know for sure why the rest aren't getting tested, he adds. "I'd like to think it's because even though we're asking, the patients are saying no."
From a patient standpoint the new rapid HIV tests offer two advantages: Because practically anyone, including an outreach worker, can perform them, patients don't have to travel to a clinic setting. Plus, because almost all new tests use whole blood, not serum or plasma, patients don't need to have their blood drawn from their arm.
~~~ to be continued ~~~~ |
