AIDS Helps Repeat Subtle HIV Testing by Mail

S.A.M

With the pilot project, the initiators hope to bring people to a control that would not be done by others.

MUNICH. With the help of a home test, the German AIDS Aid organization wants to create the opportunity to examine HIV, badually transmitted diseases in a simple, discreet and regular manner. Blood and urine samples and smears are taken at home and sent to a laboratory for examination by mail

If no infection is detected, users will receive an SMS, and in case From infection, the person concerned will be recalled, A health professional will then be available for advice and, if necessary, will refer you to medical facilities and AIDS services.

The model called S.A.M. (for sampling, English: sampling) is currently being tested for a year in Bavaria. Interested parties can register via the Internet on www.samtest.de and then have a first consultation in "Checkpoints" in Munich, Nuremberg and Regensburg.

Different intervals

Then you decide for yourself whether you want to test all three, want to be sent six or twelve months. Each exam costs 32 euros. It is tested for HIV, syphilis, chlamydia and gonococci.

The concept was developed by the Munich Aids Help and the umbrella organization Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe, ViiV Healthcare and the Lademannbogen laboratory in Hamburg. As a goal, Aids-Hilfe specifies to detect and treat more infections at an early age.

Promoting early diagnosis is now more important than ever, says Armin Schafberger, advisor for medicine and health policy of German AIDS Aid. With rapid treatment, people living with HIV now have a near-normal life expectancy and could live like any other.

In Germany, 13,000 people were unknowingly living with HIV, a third of all diagnoses only if there is already AIDS or severe immunodeficiency. The test offers special benefits for people in rural areas with few offers and for all those who are reluctant – for example, ashamed – to visit an examination center. (Bar)

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