At-Home HIV Test is a Scary Reality of the Times

I have recently noticed the commercial for the OraQuick At-Home H.I.V. Test and honestly, it kinda scares the crap out of me. To think that in the 80's this was a disease that we barely knew anything about and we thought it only came from homosexuals. Fast Forward to present day and we now have At-Home tests that will tell you if you are infected with the disease.

This is a disease that is seen as a mark of shame and pretty much a death sentence. So instead of an embarrassing trip to the doctor to get checked, you can get you death sentence handed to you at home. It's as simple as taking an At-Home Pregnancy Test.

I'm not sure if the reason I'm so surprised is because I have been so naive or just blinded on how big of a problem H.I.V. really is. The Center for Disease Control reports that 50,000 people each year, in America, are infected with the disease. Only 20% of the 1.2 million people who are infected with the disease actually know they have it. So 80% of the 1.2 million people who are infected, 96,000 people, are walking around, possibly sexually active, and spreading the virus.

I can see now why we have an At-Home test. The last thing we want is 96,000 people spreading the disease because they don't know that they have it. Will an At-Home Test prevent the spread of the disease? Not absolutely, but possibly. For those who don't have health care or the funds to visit the doctor, they can now buy this test and check themselves for the disease. There is now way to tell how many of the infected Americans will actually use the test or seek a way to test themselves. But its a step in the right direction.

According to The New York Times the test is be available in over 30,000 pharmacies, grocery stores and online retailers across the nation and cost anywhere from $20-$30. Research has found that the test is about 99.98% accurate for people who do not have the virus and 92% accurate for those who do have the virus. That means that 1 in 5,000 people would get a false positive test and 1 in 12 would get a false negative test.