STD/HIV test equipment?

NaeimGiladisLegacy said:

Morning!

So my MC has to get tested, but there are no hospitals or laboratories in his town. Said town can't ship anything out, including blood samples to hospitals. Can a clinic acquire/scavenge/smuggle such equipment, and can results be obtained right away, or is there a huge process to it? In other words: what and how long does it take to test for STDs and HIV?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Last time I got tested it took only a few minutes only from a swab of my saliva.

I was gonna say I thought there were saliva tests in wide use - seems the case? I think they've been around long enough to be pretty much available, but someone else probably actually knows.

Chlamydia and gonorrhoea are most commonly tested using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) which uses specialised but pretty cheap technology to amplify and detect DNA in urine. The smallest pathology lab in a small town would be able to do it, but if you genuinely have no labs, the classic way would be to do a urethral or vaginal swab, grow it in a culture medium and look at it with a microscope. You'd still need a trained pathologist to be able to identify the organism.

These days, syphilis is detected on serology (looking for antibodies), again in a lab, but the old method was to look at fluid from the syphilitic lesions on a dark field under a microscope, which whould highlight the spirochaetes. Significantly, syphilis can't be cultured.

You can now get point of care testing for hiv, which they make use of in Africa where labs etc are a bit thin on the ground. It needs a blood sample, but you get an answer within a few minutes rather than sending it off somewhere. Sorry can't help with other sti tests.

NaeimGiladisLegacy said:

Morning!

So my MC has to get tested, but there are no hospitals or laboratories in his town. Said town can't ship anything out, including blood samples to hospitals. Can a clinic acquire/scavenge/smuggle such equipment, and can results be obtained right away, or is there a huge process to it? In other words: what and how long does it take to test for STDs and HIV?

Thanks

Click to expand...

About 10 minutes. More if you have to drive to your local CVS/Wallgreens to pick up a test kit.

The most common testing is quick oral swabs. If you want to get the details absolutely right you can buy an Oraquick kit online or from most any major pharmacy.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009LRVC0K/?tag=absowrit-20