MINIREVIEW Home Testing To Detect Human Immunodeficiency Virus: Boon or Bane?

With the waiver of the Orasure Oraquick rapid human im-munodeficiency virus (HIV) test in January 2003, testing for HIV infection in the United States moved from the laboratory to the clinic, the emergency room, and other outpatient set-tings. By now, millions of rapid HIV tests have been per-formed, largely by nonlaboratorians and largely outside of dedicated laboratory space. This experience has significantly transformed HIV testing nationally. The next logical step in broadening the settings in which HIV testing can be per-formed, approval of an HIV test for sale “over the counter” (OTC), involves clinical, technical, psychological, and public health issues along with a fair sprinkling of politics. Much of the rationale for both rapid, “waived ” and home-use HIV testing can be summarized by two simple statistics: (i) approximately 30 % of HIV-infected persons in the Unite