Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 21, 1994                   TAG: 9403210017
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW AIDS TESTS STUDIED

The new tests promise to help more infected Americans learn they have the killer virus. But those designed for home use also pose a unique problem: How to counsel the virus' victims if they never set foot in a clinic.

Currently, laboratories need vials of whole blood to test for HIV, the AIDS virus. Only specially trained workers can draw the blood, and the test costs up to $75.

Public clinics are overwhelmed. They expect 5 million requests for HIV tests this year, most repeats. Still, at least 40 percent of the 1 million infected Americans have never been tested because of fear, ignorance or lack of access.

The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing two new types of tests that claim to make learning HIV status quicker, cheaper and easier: an oral test and so-called home testing kits.

Epitope Inc.'s OraSure is a specially padded stick that, held between check and gum for two minutes, absorbs saliva and gum cells. The pad is put into a special container and sent to a lab, where it undergoes the same test for HIV that is done on blood.

Like the blood test, the padded stick test would be administered at doctors' offices or clinics. Results could only be obtained during a follow-up visit.

The home kits are more controversial.

People would prick a finger, place a spot of blood on special paper, attach the kit's unique identifying code and mail it to a lab. A phone call would get the results of the test bearing that ID number.

The home kits already are garnering criticism from AIDS activists and state health officials, who fear they'll give people devastating news without proper counseling.