HIV tests at uni vending machines
Print Edition
Three universities in Shanghai are now equipped with vending machines selling HIV test kits to address the issue of HIV transmission on campus.
The three universities are Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Tongji University and Shanghai University.
Their presence is part of a program launched by the Chinese Association of STD and HIV/AIDS Control and Prevention, together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The vending machines have provided a convenient and acceptable way for students, who are not willing to take tests in physical test facilities in fear of exposing their privacy, to check their health timely after high-risk activities.
The machines sells snacks, noodles and drinks alongside the kits, allowing people to buy the kits and do the test conveniently and secretly.
They only have to buy the kits, at a discounted of 30 yuan (US$4.40), compared with nearly 300 yuan in the market, take their own urine samples and drop them back to the deposit drawers in the machines.
Staff of campus hospitals at the three universities would come to check the drawers and fetch samples about twice a week and send them to nearby disease control and prevention centers for lab test.
The test results would be put online three to five workdays later and can only be seen by testers using codes from the kits.
In the whole process, the testers don’t have to go to the hospital or provide their information.
Physicians said the urine tests are not 100 percent accurate and those who got positive results should visit nearby hospitals or disease control centers for blood test for a more accurate diagnosis and timely treatment. All disease control centers at the city and district levels in Shanghai offer free HIV tests.
Those who tested negative should still keep cautious and have another check three months after high-risk activities to confirm they are not infected. More universities are likely to join the program to benefit more students with early diagnosis and treatment.
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