HIV tests will soon be done at home.
Photo: Copyright: Lightfieldstudios
New Zealandes who want to know if they are HIV positive now can access the pharmacy’s household tests for the first time.
The test costs $ 39.99 and with a simple blood finger -blooded sample can return a result in about 15 minutes.
Jane Bruning, national coordinator of the HIV service organization, the Positive Women Inc., said it is an important step in reducing stigma, which is the largest barrier to people with HIV.
“If you had asked me five or ten years ago if that was a good idea, I would probably have said not because stigma and fear around HIV would be horrible for someone to take a positive test at home for themselves.
“I think it’s timely now that we need to promote HIV testing as part of a general sexual health test.”
“At the moment, many places, if you do a sexual health test, they do not include HIV, so it should be included and one of the ways to actually open it is to be able to enter a chemist and buy it out of the shelf,” she said.
Bruning has lived with HIV since 1988 and said it is no longer a death sentence. “
“They said that I was three years old to live, there were no medicines in the late 80’s.
“I was lucky enough to get into the AZT tests, which I think somehow helped me get out until the antiretrovirals came out, so science has just changed extremely.
“Messages about this change have not come to the world in general, so stigma is still the largest barrier to people living with HIV and, as I said, one of the ways to break this stigma is to make it normal.
“I kind of think of the pregnancy test was released in supermarkets, I’m sure there was a lot of worry and fear around it, but now it has become normalized and is accepted and I think this will be the same with HIV tests.”
HIV support groups in New Zealand say that having these domestic tests available in pharmacies is another step towards the goal of eliminating HIV transmission by 2030.
Mark Fisher, executive director of Body Positive Inc., said the success of Covid-19 tests during the pandemic helped introduce HIV home testing products.
“I think before Covid, Autoteste was a little strange to people and they were a little intimidated and frightened about how complex it was.
“But now everyone is doing Covid all the time. They are always doing tests. So they have become a very normal and standard thing.
“I know a lot of people are still leaving, doing covid tests and taking a test. So I think it’s where we want to move HIV and the sexual health thing.
“So this becomes really convenient and accessible and means I don’t have a strange conversation with a doctor about my sexual behavior,” he said.
Although there have been many advances to people living with HIV, there are still many problems to be overcome particularly with stigmas around gay and bisexual men.
“Unfortunately, we also reinforce these messages too, because that’s where most of HIV is in this space, so it reinforces that it is more among gay and bisexual men.
“But in reality, globally, more than 50 % of people living with HIV are women and that really surprises people because they don’t think about it.
“So people did not go through the point of stigmatizing and boxing HIV to the space of gay and bisexual men, when it should be treated only as sexual health.
“If you are having sex, it should be tested for gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, HIV just to ensure that everything is well and just taking care of your health. It is about being sexually responsible,” Fisher said.
About 3500 New Zealandes receive treatment for the HIV virus, which attacks the body’s immune system.
A few hundred of them are treated by Auckland City Hospital, Doctor Stephen Ritchie, which supports the new test option.
“They are a great complement and a good thing to do.
“The more people test, the better and some people prefer to test at home at home.
“We want more people to test, this is an important part of the treatment waterfall: testing, diagnosis and treatment, and this ends transmission.”
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