PHOENIX — Postal worker Eugene Gates Jr. was delivering mail in the suffocating Dallas heat this summer when he collapsed in a homeowner's yard and was taken to a hospital, where he died.
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At-home STD tests offer a convenient, private way to screen for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The best tests use CLIA-certified labs and can identify many STIs.
Bonus: the best in-lab STD tests
Below, we look at five of the best STI tests people can order and complete at home.
Please note that the writer of this article has not tried these products. All information presented is purely research-based and correct at the time of publication.
Medical News Today follows a strict product selection and vetting process. Learn more here.
All quotes are provided by Medical News Today Editor, Lois Zoppi, who received a free herpes test from LetsGetChecked to review.
Telehealth options make it possible for a person to work directly with some labs to get an in-lab STD test. With an in-lab test STD test, a person knows their sample will be collected by a health professional and they have ready access to professional medical advice. However, in-lab STD tests also mean a person has to schedule a test, travel to the lab, and have less privacy.
The following are some of the best in-lab STD tests:
The table below compares the STI test kit brands listed above. The prices listed in this table are for one-time purchases without insurance.
Some advantages and disadvantages of at-home STI tests, compared with lab tests, include:
After receiving their test kit from an online provider, people can take the STI test with all the company’s tools. This may include needles or lancets, swabs, collection tubes, alcohol wipes, bandaids, and a prepaid envelope.
An individual might need to take a blood or urine sample or a rectal, oral, or vaginal swab, depending on the STI test. They can then return their sample to a testing center through the mail.
Typically, companies will ask people to take and return their samples on the same day.
The company will then test the sample — usually at a CLIA-certified lab — and send a person’s results through a secure online portal. People can then discuss their results with the company’s medical team or a healthcare professional.
People should not make health decisions based on the results of an at-home test without first consulting a doctor.
The FDA writes that at-home tests are cost-effective, fast, and confidential ways to test for health conditions at home. However, it warns that these tests should not replace regular care from a doctor. People can find FDA-approved at-home tests on the FDA website.
The accuracy of these tests may depend on the sample collection method, how quickly a person ships their sample back, and the lab that tests the sample.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims that the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) has established quality standards for laboratory testing and an accreditation program for clinical laboratories.
However, not all online testing companies have received CLIA certification. Therefore, a person should look for this certification when buying tests to verify their accuracy and quality.
Healthcare insurance providers, including Medicare and Medicaid, typically cover some or all of the cost of STI testing. However, there are several places where a person may receive free or low cost STI screening.
Learn more about where to receive STI testing.
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood is no longer eligible for federal funding through the Title X program. The organization can only offer free or low cost STI testing if it receives funding from the location state. Due to this, a person must call or otherwise contact their local center to check whether it offers affordable testing.
Community clinics and city health centers
A person’s local community clinic or city health center may offer free or low cost STI testing. These clinics may provide a mix of walk-ins or appointments.
Find a local community health clinic on the government HealthCare website.
Additionally, the CDC offers a database where people can find centers that offer free or low cost STI testing and vaccinations. People can search via their ZIP code or state.
Student health centers
Student health centers may offer low cost STI screening for students enrolled in local colleges.
A person can find their student health center through their college website or by contacting their college unions.
LGBTQ+ community centers
People who consider themselves part of the LGBTQIA+ community may prefer to visit an LGBTQIA+ community center.
These centers may be able to provide people with information on where to find low cost healthcare with an LGBTQIA+-friendly healthcare professional.
Find a local LGBTQ+ community center on the LGBT Centers website.
The CDC mentions that STI tests may benefit people with an increased chance of contracting a sexual infection. They include:
The CDC also states that taking an STI test during pregnancy may help prevent complications.
It is important to note that STIs do not always cause symptoms. However, people may wish to take a test if they experience:
Individuals may wish to take a test if they believe they have had exposure to an STI.
Some people may prefer to get tests done in person. This may be a more suitable option for people who do not feel comfortable collecting a sample themselves. Others may not want to have an STI test sent to their home.
Below, we list some of the best in-person STI testing options.
- QuestDirect: This company may be best suited to pregnant people, as it offers a pregnancy STI test that can identify seven STIs. Results are available within 2–5 days, and follow-up care and medication are available.
- STDCheck: This company also sells panel tests. People can choose from a 9- or 10-panel test. It also provides an early HIV detection test, which can detect HIV 11 days after exposure. People can get their results within 2 days, and follow-up consultations are available.
Some people may feel nervous talking about their STI results and may not know which questions to ask. Below are some examples that may help people discuss with a healthcare professional about their results.
- Will the STI have any short- or long-term effects on my body?
- Are there ways of managing any side effects of the STI?
- Is there any treatment for the STI?
- Do I need to take any medication, and how long must I take it if I do?
- Does the medication cause any side effects?
- How long will I have to wait before I can have sex without transmitting the infection?
- How do I reduce my risk of contracting an infection in the future?
- Are any local centers or organizations providing free or low-cost condoms?
Below are answers to some of the most common questions about at-home STI tests.
Where can I get free STI testing?
Free or heavily discounted STI testing may be available in the U.S. People can search the CDC database to find free tests nearby.
Certain foundations and nonprofit organizations also provide free testing. For example, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation offers this in over 28 locations nationwide.
What happens if the result comes back positive?
If a person gets a positive result from an STI test, the next step is to receive medical advice. A doctor can suggest a treatment plan to alleviate symptoms and prevent the infection from passing to others.
A healthcare professional can also guide any other sexual health concerns and describe ways of reducing the risk of getting or passing on STIs.
How do at-home STD tests protect privacy?
This depends on the testing company’s security and privacy measures, including HIPAA compliance. Some use internet encryption and discreet packaging and destroy samples and data after the test is complete and the person has seen their results.
An STI test can easily link back to a person through their DNA, so using a reputable service that protects personal information and healthcare data is crucial.
What do home STD tests test for?
STD tests are available as single tests or multi-tests. This means they test for a single STI, such as HIV, syphilis, or gonorrhea, or multiple tests.
People can check the type of sample required and how long it takes to receive results. Some may also consider opting for a subscription if they must get tested frequently.
Is STD testing free in Alabama?
The Alabama Department of Health offers free STD testing through both home tests and county health departments. Alabama residents can request one free STD/HIV home specimen and laboratory testing kit every three months.
An Alabama resident could also visit a state-run, confidential STD clinic operated through the state’s county health departments. These clinics offer free testing and treatment for chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, trichomoniasis, and HIV.
An at-home STI test may suit people needing convenient, discreet STI testing. Various companies offer test bundles, consultations, and retests, and the results are generally available within a few days.
Follow the company’s instructions carefully to increase the likelihood of an accurate result.
WHILE we can’t always predict what lies ahead, having insurance coverage can provide a safety net when unexpected events occur. From delayed flights to medical emergencies, understanding the process of making insurance claims is essential for turning setbacks into manageable situations.
With a goal of “Insurance for All”, Igloo has made it its mission to not only provide affordable insurance products but also make filing claims easy and hassle-free.
From travel insurance like Travel Master with COVID-19, pet insurance like Pet Insure, and MSME insurance like NegosyoCare, Igloo and its partners offer Filipinos a wide variety of products that can suit their needs and all of them are available through multiple channels including the GCash GInsure marketplace.
“At Igloo, we understand that unexpected events can disrupt lives and cause stress. This is why we’ve worked with our partners and utilized our technology to provide Filipinos easy access to microinsurance products – access that includes ensuring that the customer journey from purchasing to claiming is streamlined, straightforward, and efficient,” said Mario Berta, Igloo’s Country Manager for the Philippines. “Through this, we can educate and encourage more Filipinos to understand the importance of having insurance as in just a few clicks, they are confident that they are protected from unexpected events, big or small.”
Filing an insurance claim can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. To help you navigate the process smoothly, here’s a quick guide to familiarize yourself with the process.
Understand your policy. The first thing you need to do before filing a claim is to understand your policy. Familiarize yourself with what it entails including coverage details, exclusions, and claim procedures as this will help you understand what’s covered and what’s not.
Provide accurate and complete information. It’s important to note that the acceptance or rejection of your claim depends on the information you provide on the form. That’s why to be ready to provide accurate and complete information about the incident–what happened when it occurred, and any relevant parties involved.
Ensure proper documentation of the incident. As part of providing relevant and accurate information, remember to always document the incident. Take photos or videos of the situation if possible. Always remember to submit copies of your identification documents–IDs, passports, etc–and other documents you may need to support your claim and expedite the process.
For example, if you’re claiming your travel insurance, keep your tickets, booking documents, receipts, etc; for pet and health insurance, ensure that you have a copy of all necessary documents–police reports (if applicable), medical certificate, lab tests and requests, and even a doctor’s statement if needed.
Submit claims online. For Igloo products on the GCash GInsure page, submitting claims is as simple as going to your My Insurance tab and selecting the product you need to file a claim. You will then be redirected to the claims form of the underwriter where you will need to input necessary information for the claim to be processed.
Your insurers will guide you through the process and the documentation needed for the claim. After filing the claim, depending on the product and the situation upon which the claim was made and the documentation provided, processing may take anywhere between 24 to 48 hours.
“Different products require different supporting documents and we’ve taken great care to ensure that together with our insurance and platform partners we can Strengthen the claims process while effectively communicating to our customers what they need to prepare to file claims and make the process as seamless as possible,” Mario added.
With a range of affordable products available through various channels, customers can find the right coverage to suit their needs. And, in the unfortunate event that a claim needs to be filed, Igloo has streamlined the process to make it as hassle-free as possible. With Igloo, Filipinos can have peace of mind knowing they are protected from small inconveniences to emergencies.
Indiana Regional Medical Center has announced that it is launching a Medical Laboratory Science Program to begin this fall.
In addition to a nationwide shortage of nurses, there also is a critical shortage of medical laboratory scientists, who perform a variety of specialized diagnostic tests that enable doctors and nurses to diagnosis diseases and evaluate an individual’s healthcare needs. Behind the scenes of any diagnosis is a dedicated member of the healthcare team, known as the medical laboratory scientist, medical technologist or medical laboratory technician.
The IRMC Medical Laboratory Science Program is a 12-month program for college students who wish to be engaged, empowered and enabled to become competent entry-level professionals in the medical field. IRMC is committed to a comprehensive, quality program for students who want to acquire the knowledge, understanding, values and skill set necessary to become a successful medical laboratory scientist. The program will prepare graduates for future roles in clinical laboratory science, research, education and administration.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates the need for medical laboratory scientists to grow between 10 percent and 17 percent by 2031. The Pennsylvania Center for Workforce Information lists nedical laboratory scientist as one of its “High Priority Occupations.”
“The ever-growing field of laboratory medicine and medical diagnostic testing needs young, talented, energetic individuals to fill these roles,” said program director Christine D. Baum, MHA MLS (ASCP). “We are excited to see the program come to fruition and support local students with their healthcare careers and goals.”
When the 66-year-old died June 20, the temperature was 98 degrees Fahrenheit and the heat index, which also considers humidity, soared over 110 F.
"I will believe this until the day I die, that it was heat-related," said his wife, Carla Gates, though she's still waiting for the autopsy report.
Even when it seems obvious extreme heat was a factor, death certificates don't always reflect its role. Experts say a mishmash of ways more than 3,000 counties calculate heat deaths means we don't really know how many people die in the United States each year because of high temperatures in a warming world.
That imprecision harms efforts to better protect people from extreme heat.
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Carla Gates and her husband, Dallas mail carrier Eugene Gates Jr.
"Essentially, all heat-related deaths are preventable. People don't need to die from the heat," said epidemiologist Kristie L. Ebi, who focuses on global warming's impact on human health as a professor at the University of Washington.
With a better count, she said, "you can start developing much better heat wave early warning systems and target people who are at higher risk and make sure that they're aware of these risks."
About the only consistency in counting heat deaths in the U.S. is that officials and climate specialists acknowledge fatalities are grossly undercounted.
"Deaths are investigated in vastly different ways based on where a person died," said Dr. Greg Hess, the medical examiner for Pima County, Arizona's second most populous county and home to Tucson. "It should be no surprise that we don't have good nationwide data on heat-related deaths."
A relentless summer with record-breaking sweltering temperatures is putting the human body to the test. "We are the warmest we have been in 1,000 years based on the best possible data that we have," said Carlos Del Castillo, the NASA Ocean Ecology Laboratory chief.
Many experts say counting excess deaths could better show how extreme heat harms people.
"You want to look at the number of people who would not have died during that time period and get a true sense of the magnitude of the impact," Ebi said, including people who would not have suffered a fatal heart attack or renal failure without the heat.
The excess deaths calculation is often used to estimate the death toll in natural disasters, with researchers tallying fatalities that exceeded those that occurred at the same time the previous year under average circumstances.
Counting excess deaths was used to calculate the human impact of a heat wave in Chicago that killed more than 700 people in July 1995. Researchers also counted excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports just 600 to 700 heat deaths annually in the U.S. A study published last month in the journal Nature Medicine estimated over 61,000 heat-related deaths last summer across Europe, which has roughly double the U.S. population but more than 100 times as many heat deaths.
A person tries to cool off in the shade July 18 in Phoenix.
Dr. Sameed Khatana, a cardiologist at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center and assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, said deaths from causes like heart failure in which heat contributed significantly also should be considered.
Khatana participated in research published last year that counted excess deaths in all U.S. counties. The findings suggested that from 2008 to 2017 between 3,000 and 20,000 adult deaths from all causes listed on death certificates were linked to extreme heat. Heart disease was listed as the cause of about half the deaths.
After the Pacific Northwest heat wave in 2021, the Canadian province of British Columbia reported more than 600 deaths due to heat exposure while Oregon and Washington each initially reported a little more than 100 such fatalities.
"It's frustrating that for 90 years public health officials in the United States have not had a good picture of heat-related mortality because we have such a bad data system," said Dr. David Jones, a Harvard Medical School professor who also teaches in the epidemiology department at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
There is no uniformity among who does the counting. Death investigations in some places might be carried out by a medical examiner, typically a physician trained in forensic pathology. In other locales, the coroner could be an elected sheriff, or a justice of peace might determine cause of death.
Some states, including Utah and Massachusetts, do not track exposure to extreme heat as a secondary factor in deaths.
The CDC, which is often several years behind in reporting, draws information on heat deaths from death certificate information included in local, state, tribal and territorial databases.
The CDC said coroners and others who fill out death certificates "are encouraged to report all causes of death" but may not always associate contributing causes with extreme heat exposure or include the diagnostic codes for heat illnesses.
Hess said determining environmental heat was a factor in someone's death is difficult and can take weeks or even months of investigation, including toxicological tests.
"If someone was shot in the head, it's pretty obvious what happened there," he said. "But when you find a body in a hot apartment 48 hours after they died, there is a lot of ambiguity."
How climate change drives hotter, more frequent heat waves
How climate change drives hotter, more frequent heat waves
In late June 2021, a high-pressure atmospheric system settled over Seattle to create an inescapable heat dome. Jean-Paul Yafali, a resident of nearby Kent, Washington, thanked his good luck for the two secondhand air-conditioning units that a friend had given him back in 2019. He wasn't used to this kind of stifling heat — not in Seattle, and not even in Kinshasa, Congo, where he grew up.
"I'm from a country where it's really hot," Yafali told Grist. But during Seattle's heat dome, "it was impossible for me to last a couple minutes" outside.
By Monday the 28th, the temperature in Seattle would climb to a record-breaking 108 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly 40 degrees above normal for that time of year. National Weather Service officials warned that the pavement could reach 170 degrees in some places. Yafali and his family found respite in their AC, but they were fortunate outliers; Seattle, known for its cool, wet winters and mild summers, is one of the least air-conditioned big cities in the country. To avoid overheating, people boarded up windows with cardboard boxes. They soaked their feet in buckets of cold water and bought squirt bottles. They took refuge in shady parks or in community cooling centers.
The Pacific Northwest heat wave of 2021 was one of the most extreme ever recorded globally, a "historic, dangerous, prolonged, and unprecedented" event that took a hefty toll on people and infrastructure. Between British Columbia, Washington state, and Oregon, more than 800 people died and thousands more visited the emergency room for heat-related conditions like kidney failure and encephalopathy. Police officials in Vancouver said they spent entire 12-hour shifts going "from one sudden death to another."
CLEVELAND, Aug. 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Novagard, a woman-owned innovator and manufacturer of silicone sealants, coatings, lubricants, and foams announced that they received UL 746E certification on two of their conformal coatings.
A conformal coating is a layer of thin polymeric film that is applied to Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) to protect circuits from moisture, dust, and other contaminants. PCBs are used in a broad spectrum of industries, including electronics, automotive & EV electronics, aerospace, renewable energy, LED lighting, medical devices, and telecommunications equipment.
"We're extremely pleased that 800-505FC UV Alkoxy Dual Cure Sprayable Silicone and 500-210 General Purpose Conformal Coating passed the rigorous testing required to achieve UL 746E certification," said Robert Duan, Ph.D., Novagard's Vice President of R&D. "At Novagard, we are committed to delivering products that meet the highest standards our customers demand."
UL 746E certification is obtained after the product passes a series of tests meant to evaluate whether a conformal coating can withstand sudden electrical surges and maintain its dielectric integrity. These are done in succession and include: voltage transient testing, dielectric withstand testing, and dielectric breakdown. There is also a vertical burn flammability test conducted as part of the UL 746E certification, and both coatings are rated V1.
800-505FC UV Alkoxy Dual Cure Sprayable Silicone cures in 3 – 5 seconds upon exposure to UV light. It has a secondary, neutral alkoxy moisture cure for shadow areas that begins immediately and develops full adhesion in hours.
500-210 General Purpose Conformal Coating is a clear moisture cured sprayable silicone that offers simple "dispense and forget" processing and tack free performance in as little as 10 minutes.
With the miniaturization and electrification of everything, silicones play a vital role in today's manufacturing process. Novagard's moisture cure and UV/dual cure silicones cure tack free in a fraction of the time needed for traditional conformal coatings. After the initial UV cure, the secondary cure ensures no unreacted coating remains in shadow areas.
Novagard electronics grade silicones offer superior performance in harsh and demanding environments. They combine increased flexibility and high temperature resistance, offering more versatility in the design and assembly process. Novagard silicones seal, bond, coat, gasket, and encapsulate to protect sensitive components and modules, enhancing and enabling their customers' technological innovations. These high-performance materials contain NO added solvents (no isocyanates, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, or xylene), and are PFAS free.
Novagard will be demonstrating their UL 746E certified conformal coatings in booth 1845 at The Battery Show in Novi, MI (September 12 – 14).
About Novagard
Novagard, a Certified Women's Business Enterprise headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is the market leader in UV/dual cure alkoxy silicone technology for electronic devices and component assemblies. An early pioneer of this technology, Novagard leverages its manufacturing and R&D capabilities to constantly innovate and expand its product line to meet the demands of today's products and speed of manufacturing requirements. For more information, visit novagard.com.
CONTACT: Mike Kister, mkister@novagard.com
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SOURCE Novagard Solutions, Inc
