Ministry Of Health Says Quicker Results For HIV Testing

(ZIZ News) — The National AIDS Programme, under the Ministry of Health, is promoting a faster method to receive HIV results dubbed the “Valentine’s Quickie Test”.

ZIZ sat down with National AIDS Programme Coordinator, Gardenia Destang-Richardson who mentioned that this new method of testing provides more convenience as opposed to the way testing was done in the past.

“The National Aids Programme is now currently offering what we call a true rapid test or in other words a Quickie Test. In the past when you got an HIV test it would mean that you would have to go be counselled by a trained provider,” she said.

She continued, “If you agreed to take the test you have your blood drawn by the vein and then that blood would be sent to the lab and then you’d have to come back at some other time to get your result. So now we’re offering what is a quickie test where you can get your results, the counselling, your results and post counselling any follow up, referrals done all in 20 minutes or so.”

When asked why the method was named “Quickie Test”, Destang-Richardson said it was all due to rapid results.

“This is a big change from what we used to do before. Not only is it now a shorter time, it’s no longer the needle that a lot of persons truly, truly dreaded. You know we’ve had instances where persons were terrified and really screaming. We’re a needle-phobic society and so it’s a quick easy finger prick, little bit of blood and you can get your results in no time” she explained.

Destang-Richardson also noted that February is also known for intimate celebrations so the quickie test is timely. However, the programme insists on getting tested beyond that time period.

The National AIDS programme is on a mission to eradicate HIV& AIDS and is encouraging all persons to get tested in efforts to get the numbers to zero.