Free at-home HIV test is another step to End the Epidemic

Here is something very simple and free from the New York State Health Department to help End the Epidemic of HIV/AIDS.

The department is making at-home HIV tests free. All you need to do is text the word TEST to 40457.

OraQuick HIV at-home test kit is being provided for free by the New York state Department of Health. Provided by OraSure Technologies.

The kit provides instructions for how to test. Provided by OraSure Technologies.

Getting tested conveniently, privately is another big way to stop HIV spread.

As for what to do with the results, there's a strategy called status-neutral HIV care.

What that means is that if you test negative for HIV, there are ways for people who are at risk for HIV to help prevent it. That's PReP, either one pill a day to prevent HIV or the injections that are being done every other month that are as effective as the pills.

For those people who test positive, the strategy is to begin HIV treatment immediately.

The best way to handle a positive test though is to either call your primary care physician or call Trillium Health, at (585) 545-7200.

We have a way of getting people in quickly and do what they call a confirmatory test.

In other words, you want to confirm the results of the rapid test with the blood test. That's the best way to do it and that can be done quickly – overnight -- and get results.

So if anybody should test positive on this rapid at home HIV test, we need to do the what they call a confirmatory test to follow it up to make sure it's truly positive. And then we can take the next steps.