…..COVID-19: Nigeria ripe for self-testing
Some stakeholders in the health sector on Thursday say Nigeria is ripe for self-testing of diseases for faster diagnosis and to enable self-care.
They said this at the Self-Testing Africa COVID-19 (STAR – COVID-19) project dissemination meeting in Abuja.
Launched in 2022 in the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the project is a market research funded by UNITAID with Population Services International (PSI) as the Lead Technical partner.
Mr Godpower Omoregie, the Director, Programme Delivery, Society for Family Health (SFH), said “self-testing is like putting power in the hands of the people to take responsibility for their health.
“This position was reached after the research which showed that Nigerians are ready for the self-care component of healthcare.
“From the information we gathered from this research, it is clear that Nigeria is ripe for self testing and we should ensure that we learn the lessons that this research provides to improve whatsoever we want to do in implementing self testing in Nigeria, not just for HIV, but also other forms of care.”
Omoregie also said that the concept was getting very common under the purview of self care within the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He explained that “for the STAR COVID-19 project, one of the things about it is the fact that we did not want to assume that because self-testing is working in other climes, then it will work in Nigeria; so we needed to use our own experiences to see how we could implement.
“We needed to look at health literacy; how well informed are the population about health, because being informed or educated is one thing, and being health literate is another thing.
“To introduce a commodity like self-testing, you need to find out if the people will accept, and
use it; and also find out if it is something they can afford, as well as its feasibility and what the peoples’ value preferences are.
“So, we went to pharmacies, work places, there were outbreak investigations in various communities so as to look at our own realities and to see how these realities will speak to implement self testing in Nigeria.”
Dr John Bamba, the Director of Research, Zankli Research Centre, Bingham University, Karu, Nasarawa State, said that based on the results of the research, self testing has come to stay because there was now emphasis on patient-centred care.
He added that “just like women can check to see if they are pregnant or not using a Pregnancy Test Strip, I think if it is available for COVID-19 and other diseases, it is good.
“Like HIV now, we can do self testing for HIV. So, technology has made it in such a way that people are enabled to take care of themselves so that they will take the decisions they need to take.
“If one can take that decision and do the testing before a diseases is spread to his/her family as soon as he/she starts having symptoms, it will go a long way in helping the overall health system and individuals.”
Bamba said that being able to make the right decisions at the right time was the hallmark of patient-centred care and self testing.
He added that though medical practitioners feel that they should be the only ones to carry out tests on patients, the ideal thing is for people to know their health status earlier and take decisions.
He, however, said it is not the same as self medication “because self medication is taking drugs without prescription or outside prescription, which is different from what is being advocated here.
“For instance, if you are coughing and you suspect that it maybe COVID-19 or some other disease, you can just do a test to confirm first before you go to the health facility.
“The whole essence is for people to be informed and to go to the appropriate professional for help,” he said.
On the concluded research, Bamba said it examined the acceptability, feasibility and usability of COVID-19 self testing kit.
He added that acceptability was more than 90 per cent, while for usability, it was discovered that it was also easy to use.
Mrs Bridget Otote, the National Vice Chairman, Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), said that the focus was to liken self-testing to the Pregnancy Test kit where people just walk in and ask for it and get tested by themselves.
She said though it was a good concept and project that should be encouraged to achieve self care in healthcare delivery, it was not an easy task.
“It was not easy trying to convince clients particularly because of the stigma attached to COVID-19 testing, but on self-testing, people are interested because they could test at home without anybody knowing the result.
“However, this one promoted by SFH came with a little caveat because we needed to send reports to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and because of that, there was hesitation from clients.
“On documentation to get personal details, people also started shying away and that gave us a lot of challenge.
“However, it was not all negative because some were excited because they wanted to know their status and they would go all out to give their details and return to give their results.
“I believe that whatever we encountered were teething problems of any new project.”
Otote also said that people were now beginning to accept COVID-19 as a normal ailment just like HIV, as clients now walk into pharmacies or chemists to ask if the test kits were available.
“Clients in Nigeria now know that you can have yourself tested at home and are beginning to appreciate the importance of knowing early if you are infected and need to do something because by getting to know early, it reduces the morbidity and mortality rate.
“So, the awareness has been created and community pharmacists have been able to participate in reducing the morbidity and mortality rates caused by COVID-19 in our country.
“We have also been able to participate in this research that is going to inform global policies and that is a huge achievement on the part of community pharmacists.”
She, however, recommended that government should either subsidise or even make self testing kits for COVID-19 and all other diseases free so that people could get them and get tested.
The project focused on access to COVID-19 testing, isolation, care, and treatment interventions within healthcare systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).
Implemented in six other countries of India, Malawi, Brazil, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, the project was implemented by Society for Family Health (SFH) in Nigeria, in conjunction with Zankli Research Centre (ZRC), Bingham University, with support from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
