A Nottingham lab has developed a brand new home testing kit for HIV so people can avoid the embarrassment of visiting STI clinics.
Source BioScience, based at Nottingham Business Park in Nuthall, are the brains behind the kit.
The HIV test is the latest innovation in the group’s ‘Just Between Us‘ testing service, offering people the chance to get check-ups discreetly at home.
The results are just the same and just as accurate
Suzanne Austin, the company’s operations director, said: “The testing that we provide for chlamydia and gonorrhoea have been available for about three years now. What we’ve done is advance the tests we do and now we offer other STI tests such as HIV and syphilis.”
Video: Suzanne Austin shows how the home testing kit works
It is hoped the kits will increase HIV diagnoses, as some people are known to avoid checks at surgeries for fear of stigma.
More than 600 people were diagnosed with HIV in Nottingham in 2012, with a steady increase in the three years since.
Ms Austin added: “The majority of HIV tests that people know are undertaken at a doctor’s or a clinic. They are done by taking a sample of blood from your arm. That goes into a little tube, which is then tested.
“The advantages of our home sampling kit are that it’s simple to take the blood, it’s a dried blood spot so you don’t have to get a professional to take the blood for you and also you don’t have to book an appointment at a clinic.
“The results are just the same and just as accurate.”
Latest figures show 24 per cent of HIV sufferers are unaware they are living with the disease.
Home testing kits for HIV have been developed elsewhere in the UK, with the first going on sale in April.
