The news was reported by daily newspaper Público on Monday and, in the meantime, the order was published in Diário da República, determining that within 30 days the required technical and organisational standards for the move should be drawn up.

HIV and hepatitis tests at pharmacies should safeguard confidentiality and privacy, the order said, without detailing how this should be done.

According to the order, the screening of infections in community pharmacies and clinical pathology or analysis laboratories can now be done without a prior medical prescription.

In order to define the technical and organisational standards that allow these tests to be carried out in pharmacies, a number of agencies, such as the Medical Association, the Pharmacists' Association, pharmacies associations and representatives of laboratories and clinical analysts, must also be heard.

The Directorate-General for Health should, at the beginning of next year, present an evaluation report on the effectiveness of these quick screening tests in pharmacies and in clinical pathology laboratories.

In the order published on Monday, the Government said the availability of quick tests in community pharmacies is "even more pressing in geographic areas with higher prevalence," of HIV or hepatitis infections and where there are limitations or constraints on access to health facilities.