How to Get Tested for HIV

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 650,000 to 900,000 Americans are infected with the HIV virus, yet only one-fifth to one-third of them have been tested.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Call your family doctor, your community health department, your family planning clinic, your drug treatment facility or your local hospital to find out where you can be tested. The test is usually free or very low-cost.
2. Decide whether you want a confidential, anonymous or at-home test. For a confidential test, you'll be asked for your name. Medical personnel will be able to access your test results.
3. Understand that if you sign a release form so that your personal physician can know your HIV status, your insurer and/or your employer may also have access to this information, because it becomes a permanent part of your medical record.
4. If your test is anonymous, you will not be asked to give your name. When you call for your test results, you will enter a personal identification number (PIN).
5. Call [phone] to order an at-home AIDS blood test. To perform a blood test, you take a sample yourself, mail it to the testing center and access your results through a PIN.
6. Contact [phone] to order an Orasure test. To perform this test, place a mounted pad between your cheek and gums to collect a mucus sample. Return it to the testing center, where the staff can detect the presence of HIV antibodies. Orasure is FDA-approved and is as accurate as a blood test.

Tips & Warnings

• The anonymous blood test is available in 40 states.
• HIV tests can sometimes identify the presence of HIV antibodies as early as two weeks after you have first been infected, although some people take as long as six months to develop detectable amounts of HIV antibodies. The average time is 25 days.
• According to the CDC, some people will develop AIDS in a short period of time, while others may never develop symptoms.
• The CDC hot line urges anyone who is thinking of taking the AIDS test to have counseling before and after the test. For more information, call the CDC National HIV and AIDS Hotline at (800) 342-AIDS.