The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) recently approved the use of a new method for performing HIV testing that has the ability to detect infections several days earlier than existing tests currently approved in the United States.
Instead of looking for the antibodies produced by HIV, these new testing methods look for HIV antigens – proteins that are produced by the virus. Most current HIV tests look for antibodies to determine if an infection is present, but those antibodies can take anywhere from 60 to 90 days to appear according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
North Carolina’s HIV/STD Prevention and Control Branch director, Peter Leone, said “A significant percentage of new HIV infections are transmitted by someone with an undetected acute infection, so identifying more people earlier offers a significant opportunity for counseling, which can reduce high-risk behaviors.”
It is critical to detect the disease’s presence as early as possible, since individuals are at their most infectious stage shortly after they have contracted the disease. Knowing their HIV status much earlier will allow people at risk to modify their sexual behavior accordingly, potentially decreasing the rate of spread.
The test has been used for years in Europe, where FDA officials said it showed strong results. By making this new testing available immediately, the FDA is hopeful that declines in transmission rates overseas can be replicated here in the states. Whether or not this type of testing becomes readily available to county, state, and federal health clinics is unknown at this time. Typically, standard testing is the only approved method due to its availability and affordability. There are indications, however, the part of the yet to be released stimulus money might be able to make this type of advanced testing much more readily available.
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