Jazmyn Owens
Blue & White Flash / Staff Writer
It’s not a black thing. It’s not a white thing. It’s not a gay thing. It’s not a straight thing. HIV testing, is everyone’s thing, according to OraQuick.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system, decreasing the body’s ability to fight germs. In a person whose immune system has been weakened by HIV, germs can cause life threatening infections and concerns. Currently, there is no cure for HIV, but medical treatment and healthy lifestyle changes can help you stay healthy and improve your quality of life.
The need for knowing your HIV status has been stressed by organizations, heath departments, schools, and communities but what if I told you that for $40 you can now test yourself.
With an OraQuick testing kit, you have the comfort of getting your test results in the privacy of your own home. It is the only at-home oral HIV test approved by the FDA adapted from a clinically proven, FDA-approved test.
Most people assume that blood is involved in HIV testing. But with OraQuick, an oral swab is used for testing and requires no blood. By collecting oral fluid from your gums, you collect fluid similar to that used in blood testing. So the OraQuick test detects antibodies for HIV, not the virus itself. The results are available within 20 minutes.
For two decades, OraSure Technologies has been a leader in the development, manufacture and distribution of oral diagnostic and collection devices. In 1994, OraSure obtained approval for the first oral specimen collection device for HIV-1 to be used in conjunction with laboratory tests. In 2002, OraSure introduced the first rapid HIV-1 test approved in the U.S. by the FDA. In 2004, they were the first to receive FDA approval for a rapid HIV-1/2 antibody test using oral fluid.
This is the same test now approved by the FDA for consumer use. In 2012, OraSure introduced the first in-home oral HIV Test approved by the FDA.
According to the CDC, today in the U.S. 1.2 million people are infected with HIV. Twenty percent of those infected are unaware of their HIV status. Of those undiagnosed, 20% are responsible for up to 70% of the new infections each year in the United States. You can protect yourself and at the same time, help to stop the spread of HIV by using a condom correctly every time you have sex and by encouraging your sexual partners to do the same.
The CDC recommends that everyone should test at least once. Anyone who engages in activities that put you at risk should test on a regular basis. HIV is in blood, so anything you do that brings you in contact with another person’s blood, like sharing needles or injection equipment, can transmit the virus.
Because HIV is in semen and vaginal fluid, unless you use a condom correctly every time, you may be exposed to HIV during vaginal, oral and/or anal sex. HIV can also be passed from an infected mother to her child through her breast milk during breast feeding.
As early as two to four weeks after exposure to HIV, but up to 3 months later, people can experience an acute illness, often described as “the worst flu ever.” This is called acute retroviral syndrome (ARS), and it’s the body’s natural response to HIV infection. Scientists don’t know why only some HIV-infected people develop these symptoms, and they don’t know whether or not having the symptoms is related in any way to the future course of HIV disease. During the first weeks of infection when a patient may have symptoms of primary HIV infection, antibody testing may still be negative, the so-called window period. Infected people will become symptom-free (asymptomatic) after this phase of primary infection.
You can’t tell if someone has HIV just by looking at them. The only way to know for sure is to be tested for HIV. People who have it can feel, look and act just as healthy as people who don’t.
Remember that 1 in 5 people who are HIV positive do not even know that they are infected because they have not been tested.
The test is available to anyone with access to a computer, via https://shop.oraquick.com. It is expected to hit store shelves at retailers such as CVS, Walgreens and Walmart soon.
