Home-based HIV testing preferred in some African countries

People in two African countries prefer home-based HIV testing instead of visiting an HIV clinic, according to new research.

The study, undertaken by a team from the University of Washington, looked at ongoing studies into home-based HIV testing in 15 African countries and discovered that people in Uganda and Zambia were more likely to accept HIV testing if they could use home-based testing rather than visit a clinic.

In the Zambian research, residents were 4.6 times more likely to agree to HIV testing if they had a choice of where to go for the test, while in Uganda those who had the option of receiving their test results at home were 5.2 times more likely to be tested.

Reacting to the research Dr Carla Makhlouf Obermeyer, of the World Health Organization (WHO), told News-Medical.net: "Home-based testing can be attractive because it overcomes the obstacles of cost, transportation and inconvenience that are associated with other modes of testing.

"It can also contribute to routinising testing and encouraging open discussion within families, provided of course that consent and confidentiality are protected and this is done at the initiative of the individual," she added.

The WHO has indicated that more than 80 per cent of people living with HIV in low and middle-income countries do not know that they are infected with the disease.

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