Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/15
By: Chen Wei-ting and Chi Jo-yao
Taipei, April 15 (CNA) Taiwan’s testing process for acute human immunodeficiency virus
CNA file photo
(HIV) infection has been streamlined as 12 hospitals across the country began on Monday to offer final HIV diagnoses within an hour, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The new “one-stop” anonymous rapid HIV testing service, which detects HIV antibodies in the blood, gives a preliminary result in 20 minutes.
Patients who test positive for the virus then receive a second test immediately that gives a final result within 30 minutes, meaning the process is completed inside an hour, Huang Yen-fang (黃彥芳), chief of the CDC’s division of chronic contagious diseases, said Monday.
Treatment for HIV-positive patients can begin the same day, Huang said at a press conference promoting the new process that 12 hospitals in Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung have started to provide. [FULL STORY]
