AT Home Saliva HIV Test As Effective As Blood Test

Despite advances in the treatment of HIV, one huge challenge still lingers in the medical community: getting people tested in the first place.

The stigma associated with being tested and potentially exposed in a public clinic has prompted scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre to evaluate the efficacy of an oral HIV self-test, a method they believe can serve as an effective but much more private alternative to clinical testing.

Compared to a traditional blood screening, the saliva test OraQuick HIV1/2, the only oral fluid test approved for use in a health-care setting by the Food and Drug Administration, was 99 percent accurate in detecting HIV antibodies in high-risk populations and about 97 percent in low-risk populations, according to study findings published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases.