An oral, at-home HIV test that delivers results in as little as 20 minutes and has been used in the U.S. for well over a decade is finally coming to Canada.
OraSure Technologies announced Tuesday its OraQuick HIV self-test received a licence to distribute from Health Canada.
While it’s not the first self-test on the market in Canada, it’s the first oral swab, which doesn’t require a drop of blood.
The oral option looks like a popsicle stick with a flat pad on one end that’s swabbed along the gums.Experts say the less invasive, more portable option — an alternative for people who are queasy or hesitant about blood — offers a renewed sense of hope in reaching Canada’s goal of eliminating HIV as a public health threat by 2030.
For years, new HIV diagnoses steadily rose — from 1,800 in 2022 to 2,434 in 2023. There was a small decline to 1,826 in 2024. But Manitoba and Saskatchewan have three or four times the national rate of new diagnoses.
Dr. Sean Rourke, a scientist at MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital, tapped as the exclusive distributor of the OraQuick test in Canada, said he can finally see the elusive finish line of the 2030 goal.
However, he said reaching it will rely on governments funding front-line agencies to go into communities and offer the test for free.
Rourke said his team at St. Mike’s will start taking orders in the coming weeks from health providers, front-line agencies and hopefully, governments.
“This is the gap that we’ve been missing to reach the people who need it the most,” Rourke said, speaking about communities that are at increased risk as a result of health inequities.
Read more from the Canadian Press here: https://globalnews.ca/news/11661216/oral-hiv-self-tests-canada/
