Postal HIV Test A First For Scotland

For the first time people across Scotland will be able to be tested for HIV at home.

The Terrence Higgins Trust is introducing a postal testing scheme aimed at the estimated 1, 000 people who don't know they have it.

Fastest Direct Scotland is available free of charge to anyone with a Scottish postcode.  

People wanting to test will be able to place an order at www.tht.org.uk/fastest and receive an HIV test kit delivered to their door. The process involves a simple finger-prick blood test, which is then posted in a pre-paid envelope to a laboratory for testing. Results are returned within five working days, either by text message (for negative results), or through a telephone call with charity staff to provide personal support and referral to a specialist HIV service (for reactive results).

In June 2014, there were an estimated 5,881 people living with HIV in Scotland, one in five of whom remain undiagnosed. Undiagnosed infection is widely recognised as a key factor driving the UK’s HIV epidemic, as someone who remains undiagnosed is much more likely to pass the virus on unwittingly than someone who has tested and is on treatment. European HIV Testing Week was established in 2012, in a bid to reduce high levels of undiagnosed and late-diagnosed HIV across Europe.
 
Robert McKay, National Director for Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland, said:

“There are more than 1,000 people in Scotland who have HIV but don’t yet know they have it. To slow the spread of the virus, we need to take every opportunity to get more people testing more regularly, and that includes finding new ways to reach people outside of the clinic. We have high hopes that Fastest Direct Scotland can help us to do that, and we would encourage anyone who hasn’t tested before, or perhaps hasn’t tested in some time, to take advantage of this new service and be sure of their HIV status.”
 
In 2013, Terrence Higgins Trust ran a pilot postal HIV testing scheme in England, which demonstrated significant demand and acceptability for the option to test for HIV at home. Around 32% of those who returned a test had never tested for the virus before, and 25% had not tested in the last 12 months. 97% of users agreed that they would use the service again.
 
In April 2014, the sale of HIV self-testing kits, where a person performs an HIV test on themselves and receives an immediate result, became legal in the UK. However, no kit has yet been approved that is available for sale.

Robert McKay is the national director of the Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland.

He's telling us it allows people to order a test online and get it sent to their home: