Affiliation:
1. College of Health Sciences, Center for Innovative Drug Development and Therapeutic Trials for Africa, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2. Tanzania Diabetes Association, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
3. Department of Nursing, College of Health Science and Medicine, Dilla University, Dilla, Ethiopia
4. Batu General Hospital, Batu, Ethiopia
5. Jimma University Medical Center, Jimma, Ethiopia
Abstract
Objectives: Although HIV self-testing technologies have created new opportunities for achieving national and global HIV testing goals, current developments have not been compiled to inform policy and practice, especially in high HIV burden countries of Africa. We aimed to compile and synthesize the evidence about HIV self-testing technologies, strategies, and uptake in the top-10 high HIV burden countries of Africa. Methods: We searched CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index, and EMBASE to include eligible articles published in English between January 2012 and November 2022. Results: In total, 865 articles were retrieved and only 16 studies conducted in five African countries were eligible and included in this review. The two types of HIV self-testing modalities presently being used in Africa are: The first is Home Self-Test which is done entirely at home or in another private location by using oral fluid or blood specimen. The second modality is Mail-In Self-Test (self-sampling), where the user collects their own sample and sends this to a laboratory for testing. Perceived opportunities for the uptake of HIV self-testing were autonomy and self-empowerment, privacy, suitability, creating a chance to test, and simplicity of use. The potential barriers to HIV self-testing included fear and worry of a positive test result, concern of the test results is not reliable, low literacy, and potential psychological and social harms. The oral-fluid self-testing is preferred by most users because it is easy to use, less invasive, and painless. The difficulty of instructions on how to use self-test kits, and the presence of different products of HIV self-testing kits, increase rates of user errors. Conclusion: Adopting HIV self-testing by overcoming the challenging potential barriers could enable early detection, care, treatment, and prevention of the disease to achieve the 95-95-95 goal by 2030. Further study is necessary to explore the actual practices related to HIV self-testing among different populations in Africa.
Reference55 articles.
1. UNAIDS AIDSinfo 2023. Global HIV and AIDS statistics—Fact sheet, http://aidsinfo.unaids.org/.UNAIDS; https://unaids.org/en/resources/fact-sheet (2022, accessed July 2023).
2. WHO/USAIDS. Global HIV epidemics, https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/hiv-aids (2021, accessed July 2023).
3. World Health Organization. HIV and AIDS: WHO, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hiv-aids(2023, accessed July 2023).
4. WHO Regional Office for Africa HIV/AIDS, https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/hivaids (2021, accessed July 2023).
5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV self-testing, https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/hiv-testing/hiv-self-tests.html (2022, accessed November 2022).
Cited by
1 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献