HIV self-testing in Uganda

HIV self-testing in Uganda

Dr. Christina W. Mwangi*MB.ChB. Mmed.

HIV self-testing side meeting18 July 2015

*The findings and conclusions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

What is the potential for HIVST

• Uganda (UNAIDS 2014) - lack of knowledge of HIV status limits people getting into prevention and care programs

• To date - (HTS) is still in hands of health care providers in the clinic, home-based testing and mobile HTS outreaches.

• But ? effectiveness – no privacy, stigma, disclosure issues, poor male involvement,

• Asiimwe (2013) - Conclude that unsupervised HIVST is feasible in rural Africa and may be non-inferior to provider- supervised HIVST.

Getting to the first 90 Gap between PLHIV and HIV Prevalence

Considerations of the legal and policy environments

• Oral Fluid based RDTs have to go through a process for utilization in the country – phase 2 and 3 evaluations.

• Policy review to incorporate self testing and counselling by means other than face to face.

• Feasibility of the Human resources needed for support - e / telephone counselling, walk ins

• Referral – re testing, care , treatment• Affordability – supply chain management• Quality assurance• Children?

HST Leadership• MoH/ACP led

• HCT National Coordinator• HTS National committee (CT

17)-5 committees1. Policy, Research and

Planning 2. HTS QA, M&E subcommittee3. Capacity Building

subcommittee4. Lab and logistics

subcommittee5. Social mobilization

subcommittee

• Relevant technical persons from MoH, DPs, IPs , CSOs, research and training institutions are represented on the committees