HIV Self-Testing Kits Sold in UK; Diagnosis Results in 15 Minutes

A self-testing kit for HIV, the first of its kind in the world, is able to produce the results in just 15 minutes by using only a little bit of blood.

The approved HIV kit from BioSURE is able to process the results with 99.7 percent accuracy in just 15 minutes, according to the UK Telegraph. This is said to help discreetly identify more than 25,000 individuals in Britain who are infected with the disease but do not know it yet.

The BioSURE HIV Self Test can be bought online for £29.95 directly from the company's website www.hivselftest.co.uk or through the NHS online shop, www.freedoms-shop.com to enforce anonymity and discreetness. It only takes a pinprick from the user's finger to take a blood sample for the kit to detect the presence of the antibodies from HIV.

"Knowing your HIV status is critical and the launch of this product will empower people to discreetly test themselves when it is convenient to them and in a place where they feel comfortable," said Brigette Bard, founder and CEO of BioSURE via Metro UK. She believes that this method can help reduce the rising HIV infection rates.

"The availability of the UK's first home HIV testing kit is a really exciting development," said Dr. Michael Brady, sexual health and HIV consultant at London's Kings College Hospital.

"Rates of undiagnosed HIV and late diagnoses remain unacceptably high in the UK and continue to contribute to unnecessary illness and onward transmission of the virus."

The UK Mirror reports that there are home blood tests available that takes five days to produce the results that needs to be posted off to a lab and another test that uses a mouth swab that is less accurate. The BioSURE HIV Self Test can give a faster and more reliable result and it can be done anytime, anywhere. The testing kit is also highly approved and is stamped with the European-wide specialist CE mark.

Self-testing was made with the intention of encouraging anonymity by designing it to be easy to use anywhere. However, the kit may not be able to detect recent HIV infection, according to the company's founder.

"The process of gaining the CE mark for an HIV self-test is extremely rigorous and requires proof that an untrained user can perform the test and read the results with the same level of accuracy as a trained healthcare professional," according to Bard.

"However the BioSURE HIV self-test may not detect recent HIV infection as it can take up to three months for the level of antibodies to become detectable."