£14M to develop HIV self-testing in southern Africa

A partnership involving UCL has been awarded £14M to accelerate access to simple self-tests in African countries. Self-testing for HIV using rapid diagnostic kits is becoming increasingly widely used, allowing high-risk people to test their own HIV status in private. Self-testing is now recommended in the USA and Europe, was recently introduced in Kenya, and is being evaluated for introduction in several other African countries. However, its use is controversial and remains illegal in many countries. With the support of a $22M (£14M) investment from UNITAID, Population Services International (PSI) and its research partners UCL, the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the World Health Organization will conduct the world's largest evaluation of HIV self-testing to date, in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, with the view to scaling it up. The group will pilot HIV self-testing models among different populations and over the course of the two-year project will distribute nearly 750,000 HIV self-test kits and gather evidence about its effectiveness. 'UNITAID continually seeks new ways to improve access to better products to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria," said Philippe Duneton, Deputy Executive Director of UNITAID.