Home STD Tests Now Available In Alabama For Ages 12 And Up

ACROSS ALABAMA — It's a startling statistic. One in two sexually active young people will acquire an STD before age 25, and most will not be aware of it, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

To help slow the spread of HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases, adults and children as young as 12 in Alabama can now have a testing kit delivered to their home free of charge.

ADPH officials hope that the availability of these testing kits will increase awareness of STD and HIV infections for people who would not otherwise get tested.

Recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Alabama ranks eighth in the country for chlamydia cases and third for gonorrhea. The state takes the No. 17 spot for syphilis cases. The good news is that these sexually-transmitted diseases can be cured.

In 2018, there were 15,820 deaths among adults and adolescents with diagnosed HIV in the United States. Nearly half of those deaths were in the South, according to the CDC. While there is no cure for HIV, people with the virus can live a long life if it's caught early and managed.

Alabama residents interested in knowing their HIV or STD status can request a specimen collection and laboratory test kit every three months. These collection kits will be mailed to the patient’s home and will contain supplies to collect a blood and urine sample.

Residents can then mail the kit to a lab to be tested. The test results will be returned to a clinician who'll act on the results accordingly. ADPH heath officials said the laboratory-conducted test is sensitive enough to detect even a recent HIV infection.

Information about requesting a test, test results, treatment and follow-up is available at this link.

To make the kits available to Alabamians, ADPH partnered with Binx Health, a Boston-based company that specializes in at-home STD testing.