The literature strongly suggests that while HIV antibodies are found in urine, infectious HIV is not. Therefore, urine testing is safer for everybody. Many people who are at risk for HIV infection are also at risk for infection with other STDs.
New technologies make it possible to test for gonorrhea and chlamydia infection using urine samples.
Now patients can be tested for the most common STDs, as well as HIV-1, without painful or invasive sampling techniques. Urine samples are frequently collected during pregnancy, so the Calypte HIV-1 antibody algorithm is very convenient. Since urine collection is easy and noninvasive, and since a trained phlebotomist is not required to collect a urine sample, it is possible for HIV outreach programs and clinics to expand their operations in a cost-effective way. The screening EIA was licensed by the FDA in the summer of 1996, and the supplemental urine Western Blot was licensed by the FDA in the summer of 1998. Both tests are manufactured by Calypte Biomedical Corporation, which is headquartered in Alameda, California.