Uganda to introduce oral HIV self-test kit

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By CGTN's Fridah Mlemwa

Uganda’s Ministry of Health is working towards introducing oral HIV self-test kits as part of measures to encourage men to find out their HIV/AIDs status, reports the Daily Monitor.

Makerere University carried out research that proved that seven out of 10 men preferred the antibody self-test kits which gave results in less than 20 minutes.

“The low uptake of HIV testing services by men in the country informed our study,” said Dr Joseph Matovu of Makerere University School of Public Health, adding that it was meant to assess whether couples can disclose their HIV status between themselves.

Three steps to complete the test. /Makerere University Photo

The Uganda Demographic and Health Survey of 2016 shows that about 47 percent of men aged between 15 and 49 have been tested and received their HIV status results in the last 12 months, compared to 55 percent of women.

The HIV self-test kits work by collecting oral fluid from the gums.

“You swab the self-test kit on your upper gum and the lower and it’s this swabbing that captures fluids on the gum before being put in testing solutions,” said Dr Matovu.

“The kit after being inserted in the solutions will start to show lines. If it shows one line that means you are negative if its shows two lines, it means that you are HIV positive but you need to do a confirmatory test in a health facility,” he added.

The antibody test does not require a blood sample unlike the currently used antigen test used by the health ministry, known as Polymerized Chain Reaction (PCR), according to Dr Josphine Birungi, a researcher at the Aids Support Organization.

The oral HIV self-test kits are not yet available on the market for public use but the study is meant to inform the process of introducing them as one of the ways of testing HIV.