UPDATE 2-Bush widens access to quick AIDS test
31 Jan 2003, 11:35pm ET
WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush
cleared the way on Friday for providing wide access to new AIDS
tests that can deliver results in minutes, and promised a big
increase in domestic funding for AIDS prevention.
Bush said the Health and Human Services Department had
waived restrictions on a new rapid AIDS test, making it
available for use in more than 100,000 doctors' offices across
the country.
The test, which provides results in about 20 minutes, is
needed because every year an estimated 8,000 infected people go
to clinics for testing but do not return a week later for the
results.
"How can you treat if you don't test? How can you help if
you don't know?" Bushed asked in a speech after meeting his
advisory council on HIV/AIDS.
Under fire from AIDS groups for what they call his neglect
of the disease, Bush asked Congress on Tuesday to triple AIDS
spending in Africa and Haiti to $15 billion over five years.
On Friday, he said he was proposing $16 billion for AIDS
prevention and treatment in the United States in the 2004
fiscal year, a 7 percent increase over current funding.
AIDS groups welcomed the move.
"We trust that it will be spent on a comprehensive
approach, including safer-sex and abstinence, and will be
specifically tailored to the issues of the post-antiretroviral
era," Dr. Jose Zuniga, president of International Association
of Physicians in AIDS Care, said in a statement.
"The $100 million increase to the AIDS Drug Assistance
Program means that many more uninsured Americans will have
access to life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs; this
much-needed money represents a second chance at life for
Americans with HIV/AIDS."
More than 36 million people are infected with the virus
that causes AIDS -- 25 million in Africa alone.
An estimated one-quarter of the estimated 900,000
HIV-positive people in the United States do not know they are
infected with the virus, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Finding out enables them to seek treatment and take steps
to avoid spreading the virus.
There is no cure, but a cocktail of expensive drugs known
as antiretrovirals can keep the disease at bay.
The new AIDS test, called OraQuick and made by OraSure
Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR), had 99.6 percent accuracy from
testing a drop of blood drawn from a finger and was simple to
use, the Food and Drug Administration said. OraSure's stock
jumped more than 20 percent to $7.46 on the Nasdaq on Friday.
The OraQuick test will be useful for identifying
HIV-positive pregnant women going into labor, providing the
chance for treatment to prevent infections in their newborns.
The test also will help determine quickly when health care
workers are accidentally exposed to infected blood.
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service
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