The testing process for HIV infection in Taiwan has been streamlined as 12 hospitals nationwide on Monday began to offer anonymous diagnoses within an hour, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.
The new “one-stop” rapid HIV testing service, which detects HIV antibodies in the blood, gives a preliminary result in 20 minutes, it said.
Patients who test positive for the virus are then immediately given a second test that gives a final result within 30 minutes, meaning the process is completed in under an hour, CDC Chronic Infectious Diseases Division head Huang Yen-fang (黃彥芳) said.
Photo: CNA
Treatment for those who test HIV-positive can begin the same day, Huang said told a news conference promoting the new process that hospitals in Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung have started to provide.
Another 47 hospitals have started to provide anonymous, preliminary same-day testing services and would send those whose tests are positive to other medical facilities for a final diagnosis, Huang said.
The test kits used by the new service are the same as used before, when it took two to three weeks for HIV-infected people to receive treatment after taking the initial test, the CDC said.
Under the previous system, appointments were also required for a second test and subsequent treatment, which increased the risk of the virus spreading, it said.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said that 610 people tested HIV-positive last year in initial tests, but 99 did not return to a hospital for final confirmation.
The new “one-stop” testing service would bridge the time gap between diagnosis and treatment, allowing more patients to receive timely medical and psychological support, the CDC said.
People who have had sexual intercourse should take at least one HIV test in their lifetime, Huang said, adding that people who have had unsafe sex should take at least one HIV test every year.
As of the end of last month, there were about 39,000 people with HIV in Taiwan and more than 18,000 of them have developed AIDS, CDC statistics showed.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS