Private lab sees increase in requests for HIV testing

Private lab sees increase in requests for HIV testing
By Vimita Mohandas | Posted: 01 December 2010 2047 hrs

SINGAPORE: Growing awareness of AIDS has prompted one private lab to note that there has been an increase in the number of requests for HIV testing.

Questlab saw a 14.5 per cent increase for such requests in 2010 as compared to last year.

The lab, which has half the market share here among private players, conducts blood screening for some government ministries and private general practitioners.

The screening process begins with blood samples being placed in this centrifuge to separate serum from the red blood cells.

The extracted serum is inserted in this analyser and the blood test results will be ready about half an hour later.

This process is done three times and if the blood samples are tested positive twice, they will be sent to Singapore General Hospital's (SGH) National HIV reference lab for further confirmation.

SGH is the only authorised lab in Singapore that conducts confirmatory HIV testing.

Ginny Foo, General Manager of Quest Laboratories, said: "There are so many things that can react in a test - reactions to certain antibodies, reactions to certain elements in the kit. So sometimes there are things in the person's blood that reacts with it.

"And we have cases where the person is consistently positive in our HIV screening. But when we send for the confirmation, it comes back negative."

Thus, Questlab said a patient's HIV test results should be confirmed by SGH, instead of relying on screening alone.

As for the number of HIV cases detected through blood donation screening, a Health Ministry spokesperson said one such case was detected in the first half of this year.

- CNA/fa

- wong chee tat :)