HIV home testing

One third of people living with HIV in the UK don't know it.

Reducing that number is bound to have a huge impact on the spread of HIV. People are often afraid of going to a clinic due to the stigma attached to it. They often find the opening hours and waiting times hard to fit into their schedule as well. Home testing kits can get these barriers out of the way - letting you manage your sexual health.

Home sampling and home testing

At the moment it's legal to buy a home sampling kit and take a sample at home, which then you send to a laboratory for analysis. Your results have to be given to you by a clinician. This process takes much longer and is more intimidating than a testing kit. It might stop people taking tests altogether.

We now have the technology to make HIV testing at home possible through the use of home testing kits - where you can both take the test and get the results at home. No-one else needs to be involved and you get the results in a few minutes - very similar to a pregnancy test you can buy from any chemists. As well as being quick and private you don't need to take time out to visit a clinic. Unfortunately, home testing for HIV is illegal in the UK.

We want to encourage people to take tests, but the government’s 1992 HIV Testing Kits and Services Regulation does not allow the sale or supply of home testing kits to the public.

That's why we're challenging these regulations and calling on the government to amend them in favour of home testing. As other home testing kits are available on the market for many other sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, we'd like to have these regulations amended.

Regulatory control

Secondly, because people can't buy home testing kits legally they're buying kits on the internet - and these aren't subject to any form of UK quality control. As well as that they don't tell you where you can go for help to cope with your result, or provide information about safer sex. 

More worryingly because they aren't made to UK standards the results might not be accurate. Home testing kits can be reliable and safe but the high standards that are essential for an accurate test can only be achieved through regulation - and that won't happen when they're illegal. 

Regulating home testing kits can ensure that these resources are made available and that there's proper quality control.

To reduce the numbers of undiagnosed HIV and to manage the increasingly epidemic we must increase the testing options available to the public. Home testing kits have an important role to play but must be legalised for accurate results.