The following is a public service announcement:
Know your rights: You have a right to informed consent, a right to read
and review all critical literature on a medical procedure before
agreeing to undergo it.
Know your rights: You have a right to read and review all critical
literature on Hiv testing, before submitting to a test. You have a
right to choose whether or not to take a test, based on your reading of
the critical medical literature on testing. It is your legal right:
- To review all critical literature on the tests and on testing.
-
To take or to not take a test.
Before you test, seek answers to the following questions:
- How are the tests constructed? How do they work? What do they measure?
- What are the specific mechanical components of the tests? Where are the parts made? Where do they come from?
- What makes a test react? What makes a reaction positive or negative?
- What is the difference between a positive and a negative reaction?
- What standards are used to interpret a reaction?
- What other factors are used to determine the meaning or interpretation of a test result?
- Do the tests measure only one thing? Do they measure what they claim to measure? Do they cross-react, and if so, with what? Why do they cross-react?
- Who are the tests used on? Where are they issued most often? What gives a test a higher versus a lower "predictive value"?
Excercise your right to informed consent, and make the decision according to a full understanding of the tests, their limitations and uses, as reviewed in twenty-five years of the medical literature.
More on testing below, and at ARAS.ab.ca/test
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The NIH Investigation 