I used this as an experiment, and found the test very easy to use and to understand. I was very impressed by how quickly the test arrived (on a Sunday morning, over a Bank Holiday!). For people with access to an STI clinic, I would still recommend that route and the direct contact with a trained professional; but if for any reason someone doesn’t want to or can’t access HIV testing at an STI clinic then the BioSURE test is a very welcome product.

I worry that the cost of the test might exclude some people who have the least access to clinics and therefore the greatest need. The test should be available in pharmacies, ideally at a substantially lower price.

I also hope that more prominent safer sex messaging will be included in the packaging in the future: inevitably the test will be used by some people directly prior to sexual encounters as an assurance to their partners that they do not have HIV, but because of the window of up to 3 months during which infection cannot be detected by the test, a negative result is not a guarantee that anyone, but particularly that someone who frequently engages in riskier sexual behaviour, does not have HIV and cannot pass it on.

A lot of people mistakenly understand that undetectable means uninfectious, but that applies to undetectable virus rather than undetectable antibodies, and BioSURE tests for the latter.

All in all, a very welcome addition to the UK safer sex landscape.