By Eric Appah Marfo
Accra, July 21, GNA — Some Ghanaians have applauded the introduction of the HIV self-testing (HIVST) programme for easy and convenient checking of one’s status.
They have, therefore, called for the kits to be made available and accessible in all parts of the country to encourage citizens to check and know their status.
The HIVST is one of the newest innovations in the range of strategies aimed at encouraging people to know their HIV status.
It has been welcomed by experts as a potential game changer in scaling up HIV testing services and is expected to provide convenience, confidentiality, privacy and quick results.
Mr Timothy Kwamesei, a Junior High School teacher, said the HIV self-testing would reduce the fear associated with checking one’s status at the hospital and its related stigmatisation when society got to know about one’s positive HIV status.
“This innovation is laudable because now, people can stay in their homes and check. In case they are HIV positive, they can quietly go to the hospital to start treatment without anyone having to know,” he said.
Mr Kwamesei said self-testing would promote early detection of one’s status and reduce the increased rate of spread, especially amongst people who did not know their status.
He encouraged corporate institutions, religious bodies, amongst others, to encourage their staff and members to get themselves checked.
Around the world, it is estimated that only about 70 per cent of persons living with HIV (PLHIV) are aware of their status.
This has become a major hindrance in the global strategy towards ending AIDS by 2030.
In Ghana, the country’s AIDS Commission reports that there are more than 350,000 persons living with HIV.
However, only about 71 per cent of them are aware of their status. The remaining 29 per cent pose a major concern as they may, unknowingly, be spreading the virus.
Mr Ekow Sarpong, 48, said the self-test kit would address the issue of joining queues at the hospital to get tested.
He called for intensified education on the programme and advised citizens to engage in safe sex if they could not practice abstinence.
Madam Bawa Fatimatu, a Staff at the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, advised Ghanaians to desist from stigmatising people living with HIV and AIDS because it was no deliberate fault of theirs to contract the disease.
She encouraged anyone who had tested positive to quickly start treatment to prevent a decline in their health.
One type of testing is the oral HIVST, also known as the OraQuiok, which involves the swabbing of the upper and lower gums with an oral swab test stick and dipping the stick in a test tube solution and waiting for 20 minutes to read the results.
If a single line appears on the test stick, it shows that the result is negative.
However, if two lines appear, it shows that the result is reactive, subject to a confirmatory test in a health facility.
As a precondition, users are not supposed to eat, drink or use oral products such as mouthwash or toothpaste thirty minutes before taking the test.
A statement released by Mr Ernest Amoabeng Oteng, the Lead Coordinator of the HIVST programme at the Ghana Health Service, said the method had been already adopted in some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa such as South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Nigeria, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, and Cameroun.
It said the outcomes, so far, indicated that HIVST was a widely accepted method of HIV testing, especially with hard-to-reach populations.
The statement said owing to the absolute privacy and confidentiality associated with HIVST, it was fast growing in popularity and attracting many first time-testers.
GNA