In an interview yesterday, she said the department, which acquired the new technology this year, started giving out the tests at family planning clinics almost three months ago.
After having been awarded federal grants for its Title X Family Planning/HIV Integration Program, Public Health obtained an initial 250 rapid test kits last October.
Under a three-year grant, the department can still order more kits once the supply lasts.
Safe, easy, and quick, the rapid HIV test is done orally so no blood draw is needed — it only takes 20 minutes to run the test.
Five clinics in the CNMI are offering the free test — the family planning clinic at the Commonwealth Health Center, the Adolescent Health Center at Marianas High School, the Southern Clinic in San Antonio, the Tinian Health Center and the Rota Health Center.
Each clinic, Buyum said, is required to report the number of clients receiving rapid HIV test.
The rapid HIV test is offered to anybody who comes in for family planning services.
Buyum said rapid HIV testing is going really well as almost every family planning client accepts it every time the department offers the service.
She added that Public Health wants 50 percent of family planning patients tested in the first year of the program’s implementation.
During the past few years of conducting the survey, Public Health’s HIV/STD Treatment and Resource Center earlier found out that the local population was HIV under-tested.
To cope with this challenge, the center concentrated on developing more access to its services by bringing counseling, testing and referral to non-traditional sites.
