6A
Friday, September 6, 1996
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
HIV home test provides privacy
Programs also offer toll-free counseling
By Cameron Heeg Kansas staff writer
Access to HIV testing has increased with telephone-ordered or over-the-counter home collection kits.
With approval by the Food and Drug Administration, companies such as Direct Access Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, and Home Access Health Corporation are and marketing HIV home collection kits.
The advantages of the kits offer confidentiality, privacy and wide access to the population, said Kevin Johnson, director of communications at Home Access.
The kits cost between $49 and $54.95 with Federal Express shipping included.
Customers who receive the Home Access kit are instructed to call a toll-free number to register an anonymous code number for identification. No names are used.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Both companies have toll-free ordering numbers.
After registration, the customer goes through a touch-tone precuessing session that asks questions about age, sex, sexual orientation
Customers prick their fingers and put a drop of blood on a sample pad, which is shipped to a Home Access Laboratory for testing. Results can be obtained by phone three working days after shipping.
and other risk-group criteria.
Callers enter their identification number, and if the results are negative, they are notified by a recorded message. If the test is positive, a counselor will answer the call and inform the customer of the status. Immediate counseling will take place, and the patient will be given information about HIV and a referral to an area doctor.
Home Access Health Corporation sells HIV home collection kits. The kits cost between $49 and $54.95 with Federal Express shipping included.
The FDA has reported that one of the main concerns about the collection kit is the phone counselling. Some people might find the telephone too impersonal to receive news of a positive result. Others may find the telephone counseling an attractive feature, allowing them to find out in an anonymous manner.
"If you look at the facts, people want to get results over the phone for convincing confidentiality," Johnson said. "Response to the product has been better than we expected. We haven't encountered any problems with the service."
Home Access ran trial studies before the FDA approval to find whether the system was effective. Johnson said the study returned 35
positive responses, and the following telephone counseling went smoothly.
Members of the medical community have mixed reactions to the product, but most think that the concept of expanding the opportunity for testing is a good quality of the collection kit.
"We have a population of thousands of people with HIV running around that don't know it," said Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center. "The product does do a good service. In the big picture, it will do more
good than harm."
Home collection kits are available by phone order. They also can be found in participating drug stores across the country. Fee-paying students attending the University of Kansas can get tested confidentially at Watkins for $19 with results returned in two days. Watkins also offers anonymous tests for the same cost but with a waiting time of two weeks. No appointments are needed for the tests.
Home Access can be reached at 1-800-HIV-TEST, and Direct Access can be reached at 1-800-TEST-NOW.
Computer lab to open in Fraser Hall
Progress delayed by complications
By Bradley Brooks Kansan staff writer
A series of delays has hindered the opening of a new computer lab in Fraser Hall that was scheduled to be operational by the beginning of the semester. Because of the delays, the lab will not be open for another two weeks.
"It was very frustrating. I went to check my e-mail and there were no computers there," said Jody Linn, Abilene sophomore.
Beverly Davenport-Sypher, associate dean of social sciences, who spearheaded the lab project, said that she understood students' frustrations.
"I ideally, I wanted it open last spring. There was a whole host of issues that caused the delay," Daven-
port-Sypher said.
Davenport-Sypher said that the initial delay was acquiring the funding for the lab. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences paid for the expense, which she estimated to be at least $100,000.
Once the funding was acquired, simply finding and converting a classroom to lab space took one year. These tasks had to be completed before computers could be ordered.
"We didn't want to order computers before we had a place to store them," Davenport-Sypher said.
"We have had the computers for two months," Davenport-Sypher said. "The delay all summer has been furniture — we can't put wiring in until we have the tables to put the computers on."
Last spring, 4 Fraser Hall was approved for use and was renovated. Computers were ordered at that time.
Davenport-Sypher said that the desks arrived last week and that
work is under way to get the lab wired.
The new lab will have 25 Pentium Plus computers, as compared to the nine PCs in the old lab. The old lab had open-access to all KU students, but there will be restrictions on the new one.
"The initial interest for the lab is to teach computer-assisted research method classes in the social sciences," Davenport-Sypher said.
While the lab is open to all social sciences, classes in the psychology, political science and communications departments will have priority in the using lab. These departments have committed to provide instruction in the lab, and possibly even provide graduate teaching assistants as monitors.
Linn said she didn't think it was fair that the new lab would have restrictions.
"If I have 10 minutes between classes to check e-mail, I don't want to have to go all the way to the com-
outer center." Linn said.
Davenport-Sypher said that despite the restrictions, the lab will be accessible to students at certain times.
"It will be available for general student use a good deal of the time; we won't use it for classes 24 hours a day," Davenport-Sypher said.
The lab's hours have yet to be determined, but are tentatively scheduled for 8 a.m. to midnight.
John Lloyd, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences microcomputers system specialist, said that security is a big concern with the lab.
"Eventually, we will have fiberoptic cables running through the machines that will set off an alarm at the KU police department if broken," Lloyd said.
Lloyd said that all of the KU police's ports that allow a fiberoptic connection are occupied.
"Until a port opens up, we will have hard security. We will physically lock the equipment to the desktops," Lloyd said.
© 1996, apple Computer Inc. All rights reserved. apple: the apple logo. Mac and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. All Macintosh computers are designed to be accessible to individuals with disability. To learn more (US. only), call 800-7600-7608 or TTY 800-755-0601
Visit your campus computer store or http://campus.apple.com/