HIV saliva test preferred, accurate

SEVAGRAM, India, April 11 (UPI) -- The oral fluid-based OraQuick HIV1/2 test is 100 percent accurate and preferred by patients, a study in India found.

Though OraQuick had been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, some previous studies had indicated it might not be sufficiently precise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for more definitive studies, including a test conducted in rural India.

Lead author Dr. Nitika Pai, a postdoctoral fellow at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, and colleagues tested 450 individuals for HIV infection at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Sevagram, India, and found 32 percent were HIV-positive.

Researchers compared the diagnostic accuracy of the OraQuick test with samples obtained from oral fluid or saliva with a blood-based finger stick. The oral-fluid test had 100-percent accuracy versus the finger-stick blood test, which showed one false positive -- 99.7 percent specificity, according to Pai. There was little discomfort reported during sample collection, but 66 percent of the individuals reported discomfort with the finger blood testing.