It is the new HIV self-diagnosis equipment that, since yesterday, has been available in pharmacies -also in Valencian pharmacies- . Its main advantage: that the test can be done at home, work or wherever we have decided to do it since it is not necessary, as up to now, the intervention of specialized personnel to get rid of doubts.
Thanks to this new tool, both health officials and associations that fight to eradicate HIV and AIDS, seek to provide facilities to bring out that bag of infected people who, however, do not know they are.
The Ministry of Health assures that they can be 18% of the total of seropositives in Spain. That is, more than 21,000 people would be infected without knowing it, which makes it extremely difficult to cut the chain of new infections that continue to occur every year, at a rate of about 10 new cases a day.
Without the need to go to a health center or an association in which the rapid test is carried out, the team provides a guarantee of extra "anonymity", something that, for associations fighting against the virus, is "positive".
"We believe it will help because it will promote the standardization of the test, give autonomy to patients and offer a way to those people who do not have other resources to go to than the doctor in their town or do not want to do it because of the stigma that still talk about HIV and AIDS », they explained.
The Ministry of Health in December amended the regulations to facilitate that this test (similar in operation to a pregnancy test) could be sold without the need for a prescription directly in pharmacies. It is from this week when the offices that have been interested in the product will receive it.
In C. Valenciana there are still few pharmacies that already have the equipment. The pharmacy 24 hours of Paseo Germanías, 15 of Gandia was yesterday one of those who already had this self-diagnostic equipment that includes "in addition to detailed explanations to a phone number of the State AIDS Coordinator (Cesida) to call if it is positive know what to do », explained yesterday from the pharmacy.
In this office still do not know what output will have the product but yesterday "there were people who asked after hearing the news in the media" so, it will be "a matter of time to claim it because it is a way to leave doubts without having to comment to nobody, "they added.
It is not useful in the "day after"
The reliability of the test (the probability of an infected person obtaining a positive result) is 99.5% . However, the test, like the classic tests, is incapable of detecting an infection just after having a risky sexual relationship.
Thus, in the negative results will have to take into account the concept of "window period", that is, the time from which the body has been in contact with the virus and has been infected until this infection is detectable.
As recalled yesterday from the Ministry of Health, from exposure to the virus until the body generates detectable antibodies spend between 2 and 8 weeks "and almost all people have generated them at 3 months of risk practice."
That is why it is not useful for the "day after" and, for people who have "a routine of risky sexual practices, it is recommended to repeat the test -this self-diagnosis or any other- every three months as this will cover everything the spectre".
If the result of the test is positive, a laboratory check "made by specialists" is always necessary . They will determine the treatment to start. The antiretrovirals reduce the burden of the virus containing the development of associated diseases and causing patients to reach an undetectable state of charge in which they do not develop the disease and can not spread the virus.