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The AIDS Healthcare Foundation and a national chain of gay men’s health spas announced a partnership today in which the Flex Spas club on Melrose Avenue installed a machine that dispenses in-home HIV testing kits — free to patrons who agree to a short survey.

“Flex Spas is pleased to partner with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation on this groundbreaking effort,” said Todd J. Saporito, president and chief executive of Flex Spas.

The machine features OraSure Technologies’ OraQuick In-Home HIV Test, the FDA-approved oral fluid rapid over-the-counter HIV test that can detect antibodies to both HIV-1 and HIV-2 with an oral swab in as little as 20 minutes.

To get complimentary testing kits, users will anonymously answer five demographic questions on an iPad kiosk and get an access code; users can get two kits with each code.

The partnership is the second between Flex and AHF, which began last year to provide free condoms for distribution at the company’s spas in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Cleveland. AHF enabled FLEX to double the hours of testing it offers at its Los Angeles club to 30 hours a week or more. FLEX now offers HIV testing at night, when other facilities are closed, and provides testing for sexually transmitted diseases, putting it at the forefront of the industry.

— City News Service

AIDS care group partners with spa for HIV testing kit vending machine was last modified: by

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