It just got one step easier to get tested for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in the Nicola Valley.
Patients can now visit any Interior Health (IH) lab, including at the Nicola Valley Hospital, and get an HIV test without having to first visit their physician or nurse practitioner. Patients can fill out a lab requisition on their own and take it to the lab, ask the lab for the test to be done, or ask to have the test added to existing bloodwork being ordered.
On demand HIV testing was born out of a partnership between IH and Valley Medical Laboratories in the Okanagan, where approximately 30 people per month used the service, according to Maja Karlsson, IH’s manager of harm reduction and health outreach. Based on the success of that program, it has been expanded throughout the Interior.
The impact of this streamlined process is twofold, Karlsson said
“The first is that it can be hard to get in to see a primary care provider and sometimes what that can mean is that people will delay being tested for certain things, and particularly for HIV,” she said. “But if it is tough to get in to see a doctor you might actually decide not to do it.”
The second benefit is that it helps patients overcome the stigma associated with the virus.
“We know that a lot of people hesitate to talk to their doctor, especially if they don’t have a super strong relationship with them, about getting a test,” Karlsson said. “What this [new program] does is it allows that person to access that test without having to have that uncomfortable conversation that might prevent them from getting a test otherwise.”
Karlsson said there between one in four to one in five people in Canada unaware they are HIV positive.
“That is because HIV is one of those things where, if you are infected, you might get sick right away, but then you get well and you may live well for a long time,” she said, noting HIV testing is not typically included in regular bloodwork.
She said the current guideline suggests adults between the ages of 18 and 70 should have a HIV test as a baseline, and consider another every five years if they are sexually active.
Klassen said she is confident this program will help increase the number of people who get tested for HIV, and she can envision the expansion of this approach to testing for other health conditions.
“In the world of sexually transmitted infections, I can definitely see that this could be a process that might be beneficial for people to be able to access a test without seeing a doctor or nurse practitioner ahead ahead of time,” she said.
