EIGHT out of 678 people who went for anonymous saliva-based Aids tests have been found HIV-positive.

All eight are men, and half are Singaporean. Of the remaining four, two were foreign workers seeking employment passes and two, foreigners. All four have since left to seek treatment elsewhere.

The 678 people include some who were tested more than once. This was revealed yesterday, with survey findings from two general practitioner clinics which have conducted these anonymous tests since June last year.

Aside from these clinics - Anteh Dispensary Family Clinic & Surgery in Geylang and Cambridge Clinic in Kreta Ayer Road - Action For Aids (AFA) also offers anonymous testing, but does so with blood.

Among those who took the saliva tests at the two clinics, 91 per cent were male, the survey released ahead of the World Conference of Family Doctors indicated.

Most were between the ages of 20 and 39, and 83 per cent were Chinese. Malays accounted for 3 per cent, and Indians, 6 per cent.

Before anonymous testing was introduced at Dr Chua Thiam Chye's Cambridge Clinic, he had one to two patients a month who turned up voluntarily for the test. The number has since gone up to about 30 a month - or one a day.

Dr Joyce Liang of Anteh Dispensary cited similar figures.

Dr Tan Sze-Wee, chief executive of Rockeby Biomed which collated the survey results from both clinics, said it is clear people are coming forward to take the test because of the anonymity provided.

Dr Chua added: 'What holds people back from testing is usually the notifiable nature of the disease. They are afraid they will be known, and it will affect their career and relationships.'

The Ministry of Health, encouraged by the numbers who have come forward for anonymous testing, plans to allow the use of HIV test kits in all other medical clinics soon.

Further details are not available.

The saliva test costs $50 and includes counselling before and after the test.

The doctors said most of those who show up for this test are English-speaking, Internet savvy and well read.

These test kits need to be made more accessible to heartlanders, they added.

'There are more groups we can reach out to who might be ignorant or less educated,' said Dr Liang, who suggested making these tests available near the ferry terminals where older, less-educated men are known to take short trips for paid sex in Batam in Indonesia.

Anonymous tests are not new in Singapore. AFA has conducted them since 1989.

AFA has also seen a jump in the number coming for tests. The number who tested positive at its Kelantan Lane premises almost doubled from 68 in 2005 to 121 last year.

The numbers square with the rise in the number of people with Aids at the national level, where 357 were reported with Aids last year, compared to 317 in 2005.

AFA executive director Lionel Lee also noted that more are coming forward to be tested because of a higher level of awareness and more access to information online.

jessicaj@sph.com.sg