HIV Testing

Early diagnosis and treatment of HIV can improve your health outcomes. If you think you or your partners have been at risk of HIV infection you can have a blood test through your local sexual health clinic, GP or order a Dried Blood Spot (DBS) test kit online from NSW Health.

Dried Blood Spot Testing

The Dried Blood Spot (DBS) test is a new, free, easy, private and accurate way to test for HIV.

DBS HIV testing is available for people living in New South Wales who are over 16 years old.

The test is for gay and other men who have sex with men, people from Asia or Africa and people who have current or previous sexual partners from Africa or Asia. The DBS test for people who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, or people who have ever injected a drug includes both HIV and Hepatitis C testing. For all other groups of people conventional HIV or hepatitis C testing may be more suitable.

The kit is ordered online and once received it involves taking a few drops of blood that you collect from yourself at home. You return the test in a reply paid envelope and receive the result by phone, text or email. You don't need to go to a clinic or a doctor to do this test.

The STI and HIV testing tool includes recommendations for routine testing of HIV and Sexual Health.

Gay and men who have sex with men need to test regularly. To work out how often you should get tested use this test frequency calculator.