France Gives Thumbs Up to Home HIV Tests

In an attempt to reduce the spread of AIDS virus, France will now introduce self-testing HIV kits next year, the health minister said. In-home tests will be available "for people who do not want to go to testing centres or hospitals" to learn about their HIV status, she told a parliamentary committee.

Self-testing kits use a drop of blood from a finger or a swab sample from the mouth to detect antibodies to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), usually delivering a result within 30 minutes.

France recorded 6,100 new infections of HIV in 2011.

Up to 40,000 people in France may have the AIDS virus but not be aware of it, according to official estimates.

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Source-AFP