Giving Compass' Take:

• Sandy Garçon at PSI interviews health care providers working in HIV care in Africa and asks them questions to help us understand how HIVST self-care turned skeptics into advocates.

• How can these first-hand accounts help advocates continue their support into fighting HIV? 

• What would it take to end HIV/AIDS within 10 years? Click here to find out. 

Interventions that were previously available in the developing world only through health clinics are increasingly being found in the Global South on the shelves of pharmacies, at health kiosks or through community health workers bringing product and services to consumers’ front doors. Self-care, as it’s been deemed, is shifting the center of gravity for many diagnostics, drugs and devices from a clinical setting to individuals self- administering at home or in their workplaces. This takes the notion of task-shifting in health to a whole new level.

Since 2016, PSI has been leading the implementation of the Unitaid-funded HIV Self-Testing Africa (STAR) initiative to catalyze and shape the global market for HIV self-testing (HIVST). The aim is to help reach the goal of 95 percent of HIV positive individuals knowing their status by improving the uptake and frequency of testing among those who are reluctant or have limited access. This often includes men, adolescents and key populations. Nearly 5 million HIVST kits will be distributed across Eswatini, Malawi, Lesotho, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe by 2020, enabling an unprecedented number of individuals to learn their status in a stigma-free private space.

We wanted to know what the health workers on the frontline of the fight against HIV/AIDS think about placing this kind of power in consumers’ hands. So, we asked them.

Read the full article about HIV self-care by Sandy Garçon at PSI.