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WHO’s new HIV guidelines based on Kenyan study

Friday December 09 2016
hiv test

HIV screening at the Kenyatta National Hospital. The WHO has released guidelines that seek to increase HIV testing globally, guidelines that are based on a Kenyan study. PHOTO | FILE

The World Health Organisation has released guidelines that seek to increase HIV testing globally, guidelines that are based on a Kenyan study.

The study, Assisted Partner Notification Services, shows that for every three Kenyans who test positive for HIV, one new case is diagnosed through their referral. The study was conducted between the end of 2013 and August 2015 in 18 voluntary counselling and testing centres in central and western Kenya.

It enrolled 1,119 people who had just tested positive for HIV. They were asked to provide the names and contact information of their sexual partners, including casual ones, in the past three years and 1,872 names were registered.

Women at risk of intimate partner violence were not included in the study.

Dr Peter Cherutich from the Ministry of Health, who was the lead researcher, said the 1,872 people were later informed about their partners’ HIV status and the importance of testing. Those who tested positive were linked to treatment.

The WHO recommends that tracing of partners of HIV-positive people should be routine.

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Dr Cherutich said Kenya is contributing to the global health discourse and offering solutions that work.

“We have a good platform for HIV testing, and we will train our health care workers to be able to offer the new services,” he said.

Health departments in the United States and parts of Europe routinely provide assisted partner notification services to persons newly diagnosed with HIV. In Africa, this has been implemented in Cameroon and Malawi.

The WHO has also released another set of recommendations on self-testing to promote HIV diagnosis.

According to a new WHO progress report, the lack of diagnosis is a major obstacle to offering antiretroviral therapy.

Prevention services

Dr Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, said self-testing should “open the door for many more people to know their HIV status and find out how to get treatment and access prevention services.”

HIV self-testing means people can use oral fluid or blood finger-pricks to discover their status in a private and convenient setting.

The results are ready in 20 minutes or less. Those with positive results are advised to seek confirmatory tests at health clinics.

According to WHO, studies in Kenya found that male partners of pregnant women had twice the uptake of HIV testing when offered self-testing compared with standard testing.

Twenty-three countries have national policies that support HIV self-testing.

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