Community-based HIV testing effective in reaching at-risk populations

Business Standard: Training lay people to conduct HIV testing can be an effective approach to reach high-risk populations and prevent the spread of the infection throughout the world, a study has found.

Lay providers can serve as a critical addition to efforts to help achieve the United Nations' global HIV targets by 2020 and help to cover the "last mile" of HIV services to at-risk populations.

The study -- published in PLOS ONE -- suggests that community-based HIV testing is an effective approach to reach people at risk of HIV who have never been tested or test infrequently.

Key at-risk populations include people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, female sex workers, and first-time HIV testers.

A cross-sectional survey of 1,230 individuals tested by lay providers found that 74 per cent of clients belonged to at-risk populations, 67 per cent were first-time HIV testers, and 85 per cent preferred lay provider testing to facility-based testing.

Furthermore, lay provider testing yielded a higher HIV positivity rate compared to facility-based testing and resulted in a high ART initiation rate of 91 per cent. BS