Measuring the performance of HIV self-testing at private pharmacies in Kenya: a cross-sectional study

HIV self-testing (HIVST) has the potential to support daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) delivery in private pharmacies, but many national guidelines have not approved HIVST for PrEP dispensing. In Kenya, pharmacy providers are permitted to deliver HIVST, but often do not have the required certification to deliver rapid diagnostic testing (RDT). We estimated the performance of provider-delivered HIVST compared to RDT, the standard of care for PrEP delivery, at private pharmacies in Kenya to inform decisions on the use of HIVST for PrEP scale-up.

At 20 pharmacies in Kisumu County, we trained pharmacy providers (pharmacists and pharmaceutical technologists) on blood-based HIVST use and client assistance (if requested). We recruited pharmacy clients purchasing sexual and reproductive health-related products (e.g. condoms) and enrolled those ≥18 years with self-reported behaviours associated with HIV risk. Enrolled clients received HIVST with associated provider counselling, followed by RDT by a certified HIV testing services (HTS) counsellor. Pharmacy providers and clients independently interpreted HIVST results prior to RDT (results interpreted only by the HTS counsellor). We calculated the sensitivity and specificity of pharmacy provider-delivered HIVST compared to HTS counsellor-administered RDT.

Between March and June 2022, we screened 1691 clients and enrolled 1500; 64% (954/1500) were female and the median age was 26 years (IQR 22-31). We additionally enrolled 40 providers; 42% (17/40) were pharmacy owners and their median years of experience was 6 (IQR 4-10). The majority (79%, 1190/1500) of clients requested provider assistance with HIVST and providers spent a median of 20 minutes (IQR 15-43) with each HIVST client. The sensitivity of provider-delivered HIVST at the pharmacy was high when interpreted by providers (98.5%, 95% CI 97.8%, 99.1%) and clients (98.8%, 95% CI 98.0%, 99.3%), as was the specificity of HIVST in this setting (provider-interpretation: 96.9%, 95% CI 89.2%, 99.6%; client-interpretation: 93.8%, 95% CI 84.8%, 98.3%).

When compared to the national HIV testing algorithm, provider-delivered blood-based HIVST at private pharmacies in Kenya performed well. These findings suggest that blood-based HIVST may be a useful tool to support PrEP initiation and continuation at private pharmacies and potentially other community-based delivery settings.