New HIV self-test as an alternative?

Study showed: HIV self-test can work

04/04/2013

Is it advisable to test yourself for HIV, or should not you rather visit a doctor or the health department? While a Canadian study confirms that self-testing can help stem the virus, German experts continue to be skeptical. In Germany, the HIV self-test will not be approved for the time being.

Extensive study
A study in Montreal, Canada has found that a self-test at home can be a good alternative to an HIV test in a medical facility. Especially for reasons of discretion one could fall back on it. The results of study director Nitika Pant Pai from McGill University in Montreal have appeared in the journal "PLOS Medicine". Twenty-one studies were systematically reviewed that examined various HIV self-tests in practice. People who feel discriminated against by testing in medical facilities now have an alternative. Thus, more knowledge about one's own HIV status could limit the spread of immunodeficiency viruses.

14 of the 21 studies were dedicated to HIV self-testing with a total of 4890 participants. These were looked after by health experts. The other seven studies analyzed the HIV home tests with a total of 7512 participants. Although they did not receive supervision, they were able to contact a consultant by telephone or the Internet.

More data needed for expressiveness
The HIV self-tests done with some saliva were favored by the trial participants. The other variant is with a drop of blood, for which one has to stab in the finger tip. In both cases, the result is within a few minutes. In general, there was a good acceptance, 74 to 96 percent of people who said that they wanted to test themselves, have done so and at least 80 percent also approved a test for their partner.

The researchers write that the self-tests are "fairly precise and that the participants who were not infected with HIV received only a fifty-five positive result by mistake". But among the HIV-infected, the tests, especially "those without supervision have been significantly inaccurate". Whether at the home tests without support the expert hotlines were used, remained mostly unclear. The experts therefore say that it is "necessary to collect more data". Holger Rabenau from the National Reference Center for Retroviruses in Frankfurt, which also deals with HIV diagnostics, says: "Such an appeal is often at the end of a specialist publication, but it is really appropriate and useful in this context, because the amount of data and the quality the studies were limited ". Although the survey study states that there were "no documented suicides" after a self-test, "But maybe there are such cases after all - except that you do not get it because nobody knows that someone made such a test before suicide".

Doubts are appropriate
Whether the self-tests really contribute to the fact that more people know about their HIV status, doubts Rabenau. There are estimates that say that about every second person in the world does not know whether or not he or she is HIV positive, partly because there is widespread fear of the outcome and consequences, or because they do not want to know Rabenau. He also warns against buying such tests online or from foreign pharmacies.

"In such tests, the quality and thus the safety may not be so reliable." It is currently not allowed in Germany, "self-tests to sell to individuals".

In Germany without chance
In Germany, the situation looks a bit different anyway and HIV rapid tests are not useful. Karl Lemmen, Quality Assurance Officer at Deutsche Aids-Hilfe, said some time ago that the "starting position in the US is not comparable to Germany". In addition, there is a five to eight times higher prevalence of infections in the states and people without health insurance can not afford the medical examination. (Ad)

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