Over the last year, finding out whether you are infected with HIV has become startlingly simple. In March of 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first HIV test that uses saliva rather than blood to diagnose infection. Dubbed the OraQuick Advance Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody Test, the device boasts an accuracy rate greater than 99%.

Physically, the new technology resembles a home pregnancy test. First you swab the plastic dipstick against your gums. You then insert this saliva-carrying wand into the body of the device, which contains a reagent solution. If the OraQuick test detects antibodies to HIV in the saliva sample, the device’s indicator screen displays two reddish-purple lines within twenty minutes of testing. The company that manufactures the rapid oral test, OraSure Technologies, claims that OraQuick can detect HIV antibodies in saliva as soon as six weeks after exposure to the virus.

Until recently, standard HIV screening has relied on laboratory testing of patient blood samples, a process that can take up to fourteen days to produce results. Due to the time lapse between testing and the receipt of results, as many as 8,000 Americans per year fail to return to their testing sites to find out whether they tested positive for HIV.

In an effort to reduce this rate of attrition, OraSure developed a quick-response blood test for HIV in 2002. The test uses a single blood drop from a finger pinprick to diagnose infection within twenty minutes, eliminating the need to return to the testing site. The newer saliva-based OraQuick test relies on the same rapid technology, with the additional advantage that collecting saliva is both less infectious and less invasive than taking blood, putting health workers at lower risk for HIV transmission.