How would you feel if you were given an “HIV-positive” result from an HIV test – but it was wrong? Or just as bad, got an “HIV-negative” result when you were actually infected, and then unwittingly passed the virus to your love interest through unprotected sex? That’s the potential outcome for thousands of buyers of the Discrete home HIV test, purchased via aidshivtest.com and discreettest.com.
The Federal Trade Commission has gotten a court order to halt sales of the Discrete product in the US. However, seller Seville Marketing is in Vancouver, so the FTC can only hope to stop Discrete shipments through USPS and FedEx. Seville claims that Discrete is more than 99% accurate but provides no research data to back that up. Conversely, CDC researchers found Discrete test results were false up to 59% of the time, with both false positive and false negative results. That doesn’t rule out home testing completely (homeaccess.com has a valid kit.). But anyone who used the Discrete HIV Test should seriously consider getting tested again, through a qualified test site.
This article appears in September 3 • 2004.