The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday started promoting quick home tests to detect HIV to allow more people to be aware of their status.
The CDC is promoting the “OraQuick HIV Self-Test,” which allows people to test for HIV-1 and HIV-2 antibodies with an oral swab in just 20 minutes in the privacy of their own homes, with the chance of prizes and free testing with each kit purchased.
The NT$200 kits can be purchased at 362 locations, including pharmacies and saunas, as well as from 26 vending machines nationwide, the CDC said, adding that online ordering with pickup at convenience stores would be available from May 12.
Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control
The promotion provides users an electronic coupon for another test kit to be issued free of charge when they register their initial results online, the agency said in a statement.
After registering their results, users are automatically entered into a raffle with about 240 prizes, including up to NT$10,000 in convenience store vouchers, it said.
The electronic vouchers and prizes are part of an initiative aimed at getting more people to receive testing for HIV and to continue testing, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said.
“We hope to get 70,000 people to test themselves at home this year,” Lo said. “Our real goal this year is to get the people who take the test to keep repeating it.”
A similar program last year recorded more than 50,000 people testing at home, with 0.7 percent receiving a positive result, the CDC said.
The self-test program was inspired by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, which has a “90-90-90” target — 90 percent of all people living with HIV will know their status, 90 percent of all people diagnosed with HIV will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90 percent of all those receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.
In Taiwan, only an estimated 88 percent of people with HIV are aware of their status, with 92 percent receiving antiretroviral therapy and 95 percent of those achieving viral suppression, CDC data for last year showed.
The CDC urged people who have had sex to test for HIV at least once in their lives and recommended that those who have sex without condoms be tested at least once per year.
There were 39,996 reported cases of HIV in Taiwan from 1984 until the end of March, CDC data showed.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
RSS