OA27.02
Background: Implementation of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) by HIV uninfected people will require routine HIV testing to minimize PrEP use during acute HIV infection and the potential development of antiretroviral resistance. HIV self-testing could provide an efficient method to increase testing frequency with minimal increase in cost and participant burden.
Methods: In the Partners Demonstration Project, an open-label study of PrEP for HIV prevention among high risk HIV discordant couples, HIV testing occurs and PrEP prescriptions are filled at quarterly clinic visits. In this sub-study at the Thika, Kenya site, HIV self-testing training and kits are offered to HIV uninfected participants using PrEP for use during the two months between each quarterly clinic visit.
Results: As of April 2014, 120 HIV uninfected partners (93 females and 27 males) have enrolled in the HIV self-testing sub-study. The median age is 30 years (interquartile range, IQR: 26-35) and number of years of education is 10 (IQR: 8-12). Among the 58 participants with at least one follow-up visit to date, 89.7% reported conducting HIV self-testing at least once and 92.3% of these reported that using the self-test kit was easy or very easy.17.3% of participants reported that they self-tested when they opened a new bottle of PrEP but the majority (78.9%) reported that self-testing did not coincide with a specific event. The majority (57.7%) of participants reported testing alone while 38.5% of participants reported that their study partner was with them. More than half (59.5%) of participants reported sharing the self-test results with the study partner while 36.5% did not share the results with anyone. All self-test results were HIV negative.
Conclusions: Within a PrEP demonstration project conducted in a peri-urban African setting, HIV uninfected partners successfully used HIV self-testing with ease. Self-testing may be a feasible, cost effective, adjunctive method to increase the frequency of HIV testing in conjunction with PrEP use.
