By Aderogba George
Faster Project of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), an NGO, has advocated the adoption of HIV self-testing kit as an effective strategy in scaling-up HIV testing for epidemic response.
The Project Director, CRS, Dr Chizoba Mbanefo, said this at a one-day symposium on HIV Self- testing Programming (HIVST) in Nigeria, organised by Faster Project of the catholic Relief Services (CRS).
The theme of the event is tagged “HIVST Programming in Nigeria- The Journey so far”.
She said that the two year programme from 2019 to 2021 was designed to accelerate progress in paediatric HIV diagnosis and treatment in four countries.
She said the countries, which included Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia were identified due to its high unmet need for child and adolescent Antiretroviral Therapy (ART).
The Director said the HIV Self- testing services was one of the innovative strategies and approach required to increase uptake of HIV testing services especially for population with low access and higher risk of HIV.
“Nigeria is one of the leading countries in terms of HIV burden, so the programme was fashioned to increase access for children and adolescent who have HIV.
“To increase access for testing, for linkage to health facilities, initiation on ART and to ensure viral suppression.
“We also work with community volunteers in the hard reach communities in terms of how to guide adolescents and their parents on how to use the self-test kit,” she said.
She highlighted some of its achievement to include demand creation and service delivery, where FASTER, distributed 100,000 HIV self-test kits to clients across 282 service delivery such as health facilities, community pharmacies, traditional birth attendance among others.
She added that the project was implemented in conjunction with the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) in seven states, including the FCT.
On her part, Sabina Aiki, a Senior Scientific Officer, Department of National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) Federal Ministry of Health noted that it was very imperative for Nigeria to review it’ policy on HIV self-testing.
She said that an updated guidelines on HIV self-testing would redirect individuals mind who might want to carry out the test, adding that, the guidelines introduce in 2018 was long overdue for review.
“The guidelines introduce in 2018 is long overdue for review, a lot of things has change, a number of things has also come-in in HIV self- testing, new strategies has come in, we want to ensure that everything on HIV testing match the World Health recommendations and policy.
“With the new guidelines, we are working to ensure the testing happened in the community, we want people to be able to access HIV self-testing in community and also in the private sector,” she stressed.
Harry Omoakhia, the brand manager, Oraquick HIV self-test kit, stated that his organisation had been undertaking the moderation of self- test kit for the past few years and had yielded good result for people who had use it.
According to him, out of the 100,000 kit his organisation have distributed, 99 per cent who collected the test kits have used it, stressing that, ability to reach a wide audience is one of the advantage of test kit.“The test kit are dependable and has 99 per cent of sensitivity, the Oraquick HIV test kit has been registered by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).
He added that the Oraquick HIV self-test kit has been recognised by World Health Organisation (WHO) and registered by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
