Gov’t to scale up HIV self-testing kits in communities

The Ministry of Health has finalised the plans to scale up the Check Now HIV self-testing kits in communities to ease access of testing services especially among the underprivileged population in the community.

Dr Christine Katusiime, a Senior Programs Officer HIV testing services at the Ministry of Health said that the program targets  a population of five million people that include sex workers, fishing communities,  the entertainment and leisure sector,  long distance truck drivers, bodaboda riders, migrant communities, factory workers and vulnerable young women among others.

“We will be training and mobilizing community health extension workers, as well as village health teams (VHT) and as we speak this training is ongoing. We will train and mobilize peer group leaders to mobilize and distribute kits to target populations and we will mobilise the private sector stakeholders to scale up HIV self-testing through private not-for-profit services and communication including the use of text messages, community meetings, interpersonal, social media, as well as peer education,” Dr Katusiime said.

She was addressing the media on May7th during the media breakfast meeting at the Ministry headquarters in Kampala, She noted that the ministry will start the distribution of kits immediately after the official launch by President Yoweri Museveni Thursday May9th.

Dr Katusiime said that the Check now HIV self-testing kits are convenient and will allow people especially under privileged groups to test themselves for the virus in the comfort of their own homes and convenient places.

“We are looking at increasing knowledge of HIV status amongst people living with HIV within the general population, strengthening linkage to HIV prevention and treatment services for HIV self-test users, and mitigating stigma associated with HIV testing through the promotion of a simple and effective self-test kit,” she said.

Dr Katusiime explained that the users will receive counselling services at the point of collection from either health workers or the Village health team (VHT) and will be guided on usage.

Mr Andrew Bunya the sales and marketing manager of Life Care Diagnostic Ltd the producers of the Check Now HIV self-testing kits said that the blood test kits are effective.

He noted that people can access them in government facilities free of charge while in private a kit goes for Shs1000.

Self-test procedure

Mr Bunya explained that before testing, one must read all the instructions on the leaflet for the right procedure.

1. Prepare a timer and a tissue
2. Open the kit and place all the materials on a clean surface with proper lighting
3. Wash your hands with clean water
4. Massage and rub your finger to increase blood circulation
5. Clean the finger with an alcohol pad from the kit
6. Remove the lancet and press it against the figure until it clicks
7. Massage from the base of the tip and let blood fall onto the basin on the test kit
8.  Wipe your finger and apply plaster to stop breeding.
9. Squeeze the top of the spacemen dropper from down and hold while dipping on the blood sample
10.  Place the dropper and apply one drop of blood into the well
11. Drop one drop of water provided to you in the test kit on the small area on the well
12. Wait for 15-20 minutes to get results.

Results

If you are negative, one red line will appear on C area.

If you are positive, one red line will appear on C area and another on T area

However, if one red line appears on the T area the test is considered invalid and you are advised to use another test kit to run another test.