With the kind of rapid increase that one has seen in the spread of HIV AIDS< there are many camps that do free aids testing so that those who have latent HIV virus can also be identified and required precautions can be taken. The fact is that while these free camps are organized the world over it is very difficult to have people actually come and take these tests and understand whether they have the latent virus in them or not. In most cases the free aids testing that is used in these camps are rapid HIV tests that is actually a screening test that allows the first results to come in within 5 minutes to 30 minutes and therefore you can be relieved of the tension that you may otherwise go through. The earlier done Elisa test that was known for HIV testing took about one to two weeks for the results to come in and this caused a lot of stress and tension.

The good thing is that the rapid tests for aids and testing are known to be fairly reliable and as accurate as compared to the erstwhile Elisa test. However this test is only a screening and before the doctor can unequivocally state that the patient is infected with the HIV virus, there are other confirmatory tests that have to be performed. If the screening test is positive, it puts further pressure on the patient and there is a lot of anxiety for the results of the confirmatory test to come in. Some of the tests are Radioimmunoprecipitation Assay (RIPA), Rapid Latex Agglutination Assay, Dot-blot Immunobinding Assay and p24 Antigen Capture Assay.

AIDS HIV testing called RIPA is a confirmatory test and can be used when some of the other tests like the Western blot tests are not certain. The test is extremely expensive though and should be done only when it is required to be confirmed above all doubts. It is also a difficult test to perform and therefore needs specific expertise.

While there are a fair number of AIDS test that are available and can be down, the fact is that the ones that take long for the results can be extremely antagonizing and difficult to handle. The kind of trauma that the patient and the family go through after the tests have been done and while the results are awaited is something that cannot be described.

The agony during the wait is extremely difficult to imagine. This is because of the fact that everyone knows that there is no cure for the condition and if one is diagnosed of HIV then it is only a matter of time till the AID symptoms start to show. So while free AIDS testing is something that various UN social organizations provide, people are still scared to do so.