New Rapid HIV Test ‘Crams’ One-Week ‘Harrowing’ Wait for Results Into ’40 Minutes,’ Opinion Piece Says

The new rapid HIV test "crams" the "harrowing ... one-week gap between" taking an HIV test and getting the results into "40 or so minutes," David Tuller, a contributing writer at Salon.com, writes in a New York Times column (Tuller, New York Times, 6/1). In February 2003, President Bush announced a plan to expand the availability of the rapid test, which offers results that are 99.6% accurate, to more than 100,000 doctors' offices and public health clinics nationwide (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 10/1/03). Previously, the week-long wait "guarantee[d] a slew of restless nights" and also "force[d] you to confront your fears and your past" in a "concentrated dose" of "anxiet[y]," Tuller writes. However, with the rapid test "there is little chance" for those anxieties to "gather intensity and power" and the relief of a negative test "feels like an anticlimax," Tuller writes (New York Times, 6/1).