Beijing's Chaoyang District Disease Control Center has disclosed to the media that from December 2008 Chaoyang Chinese AIDS Intervention Team will implement a saliva test for HIV/AIDS virus.
Xiao Dong, the head of CCAIT, said that the team had received about 10,000 leaves of test paper and the first batch of the test paper has already been delivered to three hospitals. Xiao says that the paper is expected to be widely used in the future.
HIV antibodies are found body fluids including as saliva, tears, and urine, as well as in blood that is the basis for the current tests for HIV/AIDS. This new test method, which was developed in the United States and is reported to have an accuracy rate of up to 99.9%, takes less than 20 minutes to produce s final result on whether a person is infected with the virus or not.
At present, Beijing mainly tests blood for HIV/AIDS. This not only takes a long time, but also may bring cross infection. In addition remote areas and areas that have limited access to medical conditions often can not produce a timely test.
