New HIV test results are 'preliminary' and need doctors' confirmation

In reports on two major public health issues, experts seek to remind people that the new HIV test offer only a preliminary result, so a confirmation from a physician is necessary, and a Kentucky health veteran works to stem the diabetes epidemic there.

KQED:  New In-Home HIV Test Raises Follow-Up Concerns
The Food and Drug Administration approved the test earlier this week, but it warned the test's results are a "preliminary" diagnosis, so check-ups are still necessary. Some Bay Area researchers said a key challenge will be ensuring that people actually seek out a confirmation test and additional services from their doctors, regardless of testing positive or negative for the virus (Tran, 6/5).

Kaiser Health News: Kentucky Public Health Expert Says Diabetes Epidemic 'Really Requires Community Action And Support'
An epidemic more deadly than coal dust is sweeping through the dogwood-dappled hollows of eastern Kentucky. The new threat: diabetes.  In Kentucky and across the broad Appalachian region, a third of the population is estimated by health officials to have diabetes, double the rate for the country as a whole. Ads for diabetes counseling and testing clinics have replaced those for supermarkets as a major revenue source in local newspapers, and billboards urging middle-aged people to get tested appear almost everywhere there's a straight stretch of highway (Browning, 7/7).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.