In front of you is the Evaluation Report of the Web-based HIV Self-testing Pilot Programme, implemented for 9 month during 2021 and 2022, which involved a demonstration project that offered web-based HIV self-testing services.
The possibility for introducing such approach became evident following the research into the attitudes, acceptability and the required information regarding the self-testing of gay men and other men who have sex with men in North Macedonia that we conducted in 2019, when the majority of the respondents expressed high level of willingness to independently perform the HIV self-testing from their saliva sample.
The World Health Organization recommended in 2016, for the first time, that HIV self-testing be offered as an additional access to the HIV testing services. The objective of this recommendation was to seek out new ways of reaching out to the people who are at higher risk from HIV infection, and which would otherwise not get tested.
The findings from the pilot program evaluation indicate that self-testing, as an approach in HIV testing services, has the potential to make an even greater contribution to the national HIV response, above all by addressing the major gap – the high share of people living with HIV that are not aware of their HIV status. Therefore, web-based HIV self-testing services need to be given priority in and receive funding from the national HIV programs. In addition to this approach, HIV self-testing needs to be made available in other ways as well, including the possibility to be obtained privately in pharmacies.
The Evaluation Report is available here, in English.
Based on it, we’ve also prepared a policy brief in English that you can access here.
