Low use of testing services in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly by men, is one of the key barriers to meeting targets that UNAIDS has set for HIV prevention. Moreover, efforts to encourage pregnant women and postpartum women to refer their partners for testing and to test as a couple, in order to help prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, have had limited success. Between June and October 2015, Thirumurthy and colleagues enrolled in their study 600 women seeking pregnancy and postpartum care at three facilities in Kisumu County, Kenya. All women enrolled were 18-39 years old, had a partner that was not known to be HIV-positive, and agreed to participate. Half the women were given two oral fluid-based HIV self-test kits to take home, instructions on use, and were encouraged to give a test to their male partner or to test with their partner if they felt comfortable. The other 300 women were given invitation cards to give their partner for HIV testing at a clinic. Over the following three months, women were followed up to determine if their partner had self-tested or visited a clinic to test for HIV.
In the group that received HIV self-tests, 90.8 percent of partners were reported to have tested within 3 months of enrollment in the study. In the comparison group, 51.7 percent of partners were reported to have visited a clinic for HIV testing. Based on these results, self-tests led to 39.1% more partner testing than the control (95% confidence interval 32.4% to 45.8%, P<0.001). Moreover, 93 percent of women who had received the HIV self-tests said their partner found the test either “very easy” or “somewhat easy” to use. Couples testing was also much more likely among women who received HIV self-tests; 75.4% of women given self-tests reported testing with their partner whereas only 33.2% in the comparison group tested with their partner (difference=42.1%, 95% confidence interval 34.7% to 49.6%, P<0.001). The study is limited, however, by its reliance on self-reported outcomes as well as the fact that roughly a third of women screened for participation in the trial declined to participate, in some cases because they reported a fear of violence that could result from offering a self-test to their partner.
“The promising results from this study suggest that secondary distribution of self-tests warrants further consideration as countries develop HIV self-testing policies and seek new ways to promote partner and couples testing,” the authors say.