HIV tests: fast results vs. privacy protection.(names & claims)

"HIV testing can now be accomplished in three minutes, in the privacy of your home," claims the Web site for Discreet, a do-it-yourself blood-screening test for the HIV virus. The Canadian manufacturer promises "immediate, accurate, and 100% private results," for $29.95 plus shipping and handling.

Another maker, Health Diagnostics, of Monaco, offers a one-minute HIV self-test over the Internet for $39.95 plus shipping. Charles Dupont, Health Diagnostics' general manager, said in an e-mail interview that a significant percentage of the company's sales are to the U.S.

However, neither of those instant HIV home tests is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. When the FDA tested other unsanctioned home tests in the past, some tests failed to detect known HIV-positive samples. "The bottom line is that it's illegal for a manufacturer to market an unapproved HIV test in the U.S.," says Elliot Cowan, Ph.D., associate director at the FDA's Division of Emerging and Transfusion Transmitted Diseases. "When it comes to something as important as being tested for HIV, you want to be as certain as possible that the test you're using will give you a correct result."

Recently the FDA approved two speedier, though not necessarily anonymous, doctor's-office blood tests, ...