Calls to fast track approval of HIV home testing kits

HIV researchers want Australia to fast-track the approval of home testing kits as part of the effort to reduce the spread of the virus. The call is being made as the world marks World AIDS Day.

A vending machine that sells HIV test kits to students at Peking University in Beijing Source: AAP

Australians are able to buy kits online but they are not approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

Researchers from Curtin University in Perth say the kits could be particularly useful for people from sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia who consistently record the highest rates of HIV diagnoses in Australia by region of birth and often do not find out they have acquired the virus for several years.