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Published on: October 31, 2010
HIV self-testing: The key to unlock the first 90 in West and Central Africa
Didier K Ekouevi1, Alexandra M Bitty-Anderson2, Fifonsi A Gbeasor-Komlanvi3
1Université de Lomé, Faculté des Sciences de la Santé, Lomé, Togo; Centre Africain de Recherche en Epidémiologie et en Santé Publique, Lomé, Togo; ISPED, Université de Bordeaux & Centre INSERM U1219 - Bordeaux Population Health, Bordeaux, France.
Abstract:
The West and Central African region (WCAR) still registers some of the highest rates of new HIV infections worldwide (16%) despite a low prevalence of HIV (1.9%). In this region, only 48% of people living with HIV are aware of their HIV status. To fill this gap, HIV Self testing (HIVST) could potentially be an additional approach to overcome the barriers to diagnose HIV infected patients, therefore being one of the keys to unlock the first 90 as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2016. However, many challenges remain for the adoption of HIVST in routine clinical practice in low prevalence settings and need to be contextualized to WCAR settings. We report in this paper some of the challenges and discuss opportunities for a successful implementation of HIVST in the WCAR.
