Female 1: Did you know that 25% of Americans, who have the virus that causes AIDS, do not know that they are infected? For this reason, testing is essential.
Female 2: Before a person becomes sick with thee potentially deadly disease known as AIDS. He or she must be first infected with the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. This virus spread through the sharing of blood, breast milk, semen and vaginal secretions. While anyone can contract HIV, some people have a higher risk than others. These include people who have unprotected vaginal, anal or oral sex with multiple partners.
People, who have injected drugs with shared equipments such as needles, people who have been diagnosed with another sexually transmitted disease and anyone who has had sex with a partner who engaged in this acts. Men who have sex with men and people, who have unprotected heterosexual contact, make up 79%, or 4 out of 5 of new HIV cases. So these groups in particular, should be tested regularly.
When a person contracts HIV, his or her immune system starts to produce antibodies against the virus to ward off infection. Although these anti-bodies are not affected in fighting HIV, it is their presence in the blood that results in a positive HIV test.
This test can be conducted at an STD clinic, government funded HIV testing site, a hospital or a doctor’s office. The screening can be done in a number of ways, but the most common is the conventional Blood Test. A similar HIV test involves an oral fluid sample, which is swabbed from the inside of the mouth before being tested.
A slightly less accurate method involves the urine sample. In all of these three tests, results should arrive within two weeks. And a positive test must be followed up by a confirmatory one, these guards against the risk of a false positive.
For individuals who are in need of a very quick result, a rapid test is also available. In a rapid test, a blood or oral sample is collected and tested immediately in a laboratory. The results are available and as little as 10 minutes. No matter the type of the test, the procedure can be very scary. And for this reason, many testing centers provide counseling.
If you would rather not get tested in public, you have another option, home testing. It is important to know that only one home testing kit is approved by the FDA. The home access HIV1 Test System. A home testing kit allows the person to prick his or her finger, place drops of blood on a special card and mail the card into a lab. An HIV test can be scary, but a negative result would put your mind at ease. If your HIV test is positive, you have just taken an important first step on the road to treatment.
Female 2: Want to learn more? Check out other videos and sources on this site for more information.
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