5 Differences Between Anonymous and Confidential HIV Testing

March 9th, 2010   Add Comment

Did you know that there is a difference between anonymous and confidential HIV testing?  There are actually a number of differences.  What we offer on our site is an anonymous home HIV test.  Read on to learn the differences between the two:

1.  Anonymous testing is not offered in every state. This is one of the reasons why the FDA Approved home HIV test is so important.  You simply cannot walk into a clinic and obtain an anonymous test in 11 states.  Your testing will still be accurate and confidential, but the anonymous testing option will not be available to you.  (Check out the Kaiser Family Foundation site for more information on this subject).

2.  In anonymous testing your name is never revealed.  In confidential testing, your name is reported to local government health officials. This is perhaps the greatest difference between the two types of testing.  If your test is found positive in confidential testing, your name is reported to local public health officials.  This is not necessarily a bad thing – such information is collected to provide better medical services and allows health officials to gauge the impact of HIV/AIDS on their population.  Confidential testing does NOT release your name by default to insurance companies or employers.  The federal government does not receive your name either, only the state.  Regulations vary state by state with confidential testing – if this is a concern of yours, please check with your state government for more information.

3.  Anonymous testing protects you from any and all risk of discrimination, or negative social impact from your test results. As mentioned above, confidential testing does not mean that your insurance company or employer will learn you were tested, or that you tested positive.  But as HIV/AIDS resource The Body points out, if you sign a release form to notify your personal physician, your status will be entered into your medical record forever, and may be available to employers and insurance companies.  In the case of anonymous testing, you run no risk of this whatsoever – you’re never a name, only a number.

4.  Anonymous HIV testing can be done in your home; confidential testing cannot. ALL of the FDA Approved home HIV tests on the market are anonymous.  You receive your results over the phone by supplying a numeric code – no-one ever knows your name, and only you know your results.  Since at the moment there are only two FDA Approved home HIV tests (both of which we carry), we can guarantee that home testing is 100% anonymous.

5.  Anonymous testing is the most private type of HIV testing you can get. If privacy is your priority, confidential testing will probably fall short for you for the reasons above – your name is reported, and you will have to go to a clinic or a doctor of some sort.  An anonymous home HIV test comes to your door in discreet packaging, and identifies you with an anonymous 11 digit code.  The package that is shipped to the lab doesn’t even include your return address.

The most important thing is to get tested, whether your choose anonymous or confidential testing.  Lots of people are doing it – the CDC reports 16-22 million people get tested per year – but still, not enough people are.  Make sure you take time to learn your status, either through confidential or anonymous HIV testing.

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Promoting HIV Awareness With Lady Gaga

February 11th, 2010   Add Comment

It’s not everyday you have something in common with Lady Gaga, no?  Yet this week we found ourselves in that position, as pop stars Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper took to the airwaves to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS, especially the degree to which it effects women.

Their campaign is part of an effort to support the M-A-C AIDS fund.  With cosmetics company M-A-C they have created a line of lipsticks, 100% of the profits of which will go to the AIDS fund.

But why lipstick you ask?  Because they are trying to reach out to a younger generation of women who may go out with friends and not think about the importance of safe sex.  Instead of worrying about HIV/AIDS after the fact, keep it in mind at all times.  Too many segments of the population don’t think as much as they should about it, as often the disease is thought of as a disease affecting needle users, gay men, and African-Americans “only.”  But you don’t have to be in a high-risk group to be at risk.

It is important to make sure you are not at risk of spreading HIV/AIDS if you have had unprotected sex by HIV testing.  The CDC recommends that everyone gets tested annually regardless of risk.  You can get results quickly and anonymously from an FDA Approved Home HIV Test.

The campaign of Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper comes at a great time.  Hopefully it will also give a boost to the efforts of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (link is to our blog about that event) as well.

It’s good to be in such good company on this very serious issue.  You can check out an interview with Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga here at ABC News.

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National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day – Make Feb 7th Your Time To Get Tested

February 4th, 2010   1 Comment

February 7th falls on a Sunday this year and marks National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.  This is a very important day for all Americans regardless of race to keep in mind, as people may not be aware that HIV/AIDS disproportionately strikes African-Americans of all ages in this country.

The statistics are quite staggering.  According to the CDC’s National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day page, an estimated 1.1 million people live with HIV infection, and 46% of those are African-American.  Yet blacks only represent 12% of the United States population.

The National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day official page offers more sobering facts.  For example, “Blacks accounted for 51% of the 42,655 (including children) new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in 34 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIV reporting.”  This is definitely not a crisis on the wane, and there is a lot to be done.

Extremely important for all, but especially the black community, is to make sure you are HIV negative by getting tested regularly.  This can have a huge impact on the problem.  It’s one of the reasons a main strategy employed on this day is a massive HIV testing push.  If people can get in the habit of testing themselves annually or bi-annually, some of the stigma of testing will vanish, and healthier communities and individuals will result.

If you are hesitant to go to a community clinic for any reason, you can always get tested by ordering a home HIV test kit online.  The test is strictly anonymous and you are only identified by a code that comes with your kit and that you use to receive your results by phone.  The kits we sell are FDA Approved blood tests, so there should be no concern over the “does this really work” line of questioning – they are also 99.9% accurate, as reliable as those used by doctors and hospitals.

The home AIDS test allows you to test yourself at any time, in any place.  We hope you will make February 7th your day to test in order to raise awareness of one of the most devastating HIV/AIDS crises in the country.

Know the Facts – Home HIV Test With the FDA’s Seal of Approval

January 29th, 2010   Add Comment

HIV Testing is an important thing, for the individual and society as a whole.  Why say this?  Because of this sobering finding for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention on HIV awareness:

Early diagnosis of HIV infection can delay progression to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and reduce transmission of HIV to others. Nonetheless, in 2006, an estimated 232,700 persons, 21% of those living with HIV infection in the United States, were not aware of their HIV infection status.

There are many options available, including any of our home AIDS tests.  But there is one thing you should definitely be aware of…

Make sure your test is FDA APPROVED!!!

We say this because there are other tests available online, some using saliva instead of blood, that are marketed as home HIV tests.  But these tests are not FDA Approved.  When you are looking for a test as important as an HIV test, it is necessary to know that the FDA has approved it and that you are in good hands.  Home Health Testing ONLY sells FDA Approved home HIV kits.  All of our AIDS tests come with telephone support for your results questions too.

So keep that in mind – make sure your test is FDA Approved!  Home Health Testing makes sure that all of our products in the Home HIV test category certainly are.

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Regular HIV Testing Means the Possibility of Better Treatment

January 18th, 2010   Add Comment

While a lot of awareness has been created about the spread of HIV and how HIV’s spread can be controlled and abated, there is still a lot of work to be done. In 2006, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that about 20 percent of HIV-infected people in the US do not know their status because they have not been tested.

HIV testing is essential for everyone for more reasons than one. By detecting HIV status early in life, you can ensure appropriate monitoring of the condition, obtain adequate and relevant health care and ensure that you can extend your life in a healthy manner. In addition, early detection can also help in avoiding the spread of the HIV from you on to others.

Many people are simply not aware that regular and timely HIV testing is key to early detection. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone between the age of 13 and 64 years should be given the option of HIV testing as part of the regular annual health check up. Specific communities with a higher incidence of HIV/AIDS should ensure that they get HIV testing done more often.

For some this may be easier said than done, and the process of going to a clinic may cause a lot of discomfort. This certainly should not hold you back any longer though because today one has the option of choosing a home AIDS test. Home HIV testing can help you gain the courage to actually test and determine your status.

The home HIV test is FDA approved and ensures complete privacy. All that you need to do is to send in your sample and keep the unique and anonymous code that is assigned to the home HIV test kit. The results of the test can be obtained over the phone by calling a toll free number. Whether you want the results of the home HIV test sent to you by mail or email is a complete matter of choice and can be determined over the phone.

The confidential aspect of home HIV testing can make all the difference for someone who wants and needs to be tested. It is hoped that more people will choose to take this completely private and confidential test instead of foregoing testing at all. In this way they can get adequate treatment to delay the onset of AIDS and make lifestyle changes that will stop the spread of the virus as well.

-  Anne Hamilton

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Commemorate World AIDS Day

December 1st, 2009   Add Comment

Today is World AIDS Day, a great opportunity to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and its effects on local and global populations.  If you love surfing the web, it’s really hard to miss – Google has its AIDS ribbon, and on both twitter and Facebook you can “go red” (check out JoinRed for more information).  What we want to do to draw attention to this epidemic today is talk about home hiv testing, which has become so easy with the advent of the home hiv test.

Of course testing is important in terms of protecting yourself and others from HIV/AIDS.  As I blogged about earlier, public health experts encourage everyone to get HIV tested.  But as the Washington Post reports in “WHO: Treat HIV Patients Sooner,” it is also important to know your status because early treatment is extremely important.

Although this applies mostly to non-Western countries, the World Health Organization has just issued new guidance suggesting AIDS patients should begin taking drugs a year or two earlier (and of course, you can’t do this if you don’t take an AIDS test and find out if you are positive!).  ”In most Western countries, doctors start treating HIV patients when their CD4 count is about 500″ the article says, and the WHO is trying to encourage everyone to begin medication at higher CD4 count levels (the previous recommendation was 200; now it is 350), CD4 being a measure of the immune system, and CD4 tests being an important aspect of HIV treatment.

So, as the WHO encourages early treatment just in time for World AIDS Day, we encourage early detection, which can be done in a clinic or anonymously at home with a home HIV test.  Home testing is just as accurate as testing done in the hospital – and you can learn more about it by reading our Home HIV Testing resources or either of our product pages (Express Home HIV Test Kit or the Standard Home HIV Test Kit).  We hope that as World AIDS Day raises awareness today, we can help raise awareness of the type of options you have at hand to determine your HIV/AIDS status.  Please spread the word about World AIDS Day and take a moment to raise awareness and help stop AIDS today!

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