Davison Health Center has, for years, been offering both confidential and anonymous HIV testing at lowest available cost. At the present time these tests comprise an oral swab or blood test processed by the state lab and a blood test processed by Quest Diagnostics. The state lab tests cost $27 and results are usually available within ten days and typically delivered at a follow-up visit two weeks after testing. The Quest test costs $43 and results are usually available within three days and typically delivered at a follow-up visit three to four days after testing.

About 18 months ago, a rapid HIV test (OraQuick Advance) was approved for use in our type of clinic. This test could be performed on either oral or blood specimens with results available in 20 minutes. It gained rapid popularity at busy sexual health clinics where follow-up for test results was frequently suboptimal. Unfortunately, there emerged some problems, principally in the form of false positive tests, mainly on oral specimens. The use of only blood samples for this rapid test appears to have alleviated this problem.

It has, for some months, been the intent of Davison Health Center to make available the rapid test. There do, however, remain certain obstacles to incorporation of this test into our clinical practice. The first is a logistic one in how we manage the lag between testing and results in terms of our clinical scheduling. The second is how we keep the price low enough to allow easy access for students of all means. The third is how we optimally limit false positives. None of these obstacles is by any means insurmountable. Overcoming them requires a certain amount of research, mainly reviewing the practices of like institutions that have incorporated this test.

Irrespective of whether or not we adopt the rapid test, the DHC staff has begun discussion about changing the standard protocol for HIV test documentation. It is becoming increasingly common for student health centers to chart HIV testing as they do other tests, including tests for sexually transmitted infections. The normalizing of information management is believed not to pose a risk to individuals’ privacy but may contribute to the destigmatization of HIV infection by changing the policy of special handling and documentation. To gauge student reaction/interest, we have prepared a single question survey with appropriate background information and posted it to our website (http://www.wesleyan.edu/healthservices/ofnote/HIVsurvey.html).

In sum, DHC remains committed to providing the highest quality, most up-to-date testing for HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and medical conditions in general at the lowest possible prices. Because of our emphasis on assuring that testing is validated at a high standard and responsibly incorporated into our clinical model, we are necessarily cautious. This equates to being somewhat slow compared with dedicated centers in big cities, but typically makes us relatively early adopters among peer institutions. If there is a group of students interested in helping speed the pace of adoption of rapid HIV testing by assisting me in completing the necessary legwork for investigating the test, please contact me at pdsmith@wesleyan.edu.