PMID- 28292077
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20170404
LR  - 20181113
IS  - 1937-8688 (Electronic)
VI  - 25
DP  - 2016
TI  - Ethical implications of HIV self-testing: the game is far from being over.
PG  - 114
LID - 10.11604/pamj.2016.25.114.8303 [doi]
LID - 114
AB  - The use of combined Anti-Retroviral Therapy (cART) has been revolutionary in the 
      history of the fight against HIV-AIDS, with remarkable reductions in HIV 
      associated morbidity and mortality. Knowing one's HIV status early, not only 
      increases chances of early initiation of effective, affordable and available 
      treatment, but has lately been associated with an important potential to reduce 
      disease transmission. A public health priority lately has been to lay emphasis on 
      early and wide spread HIV screening. With many countries having already in the 
      market over the counter self-testing kits, the ethical question whether 
      self-testing in HIV with such kits is acceptable remains unanswered. Many Western 
      authors have been firm on the fact that this approach enhances patient autonomy 
      and is ethically grounded. We argue that the notion of patient autonomy as 
      proposed by most ethicists assumes perfect understanding of information around 
      HIV, neglects HIV associated stigma as well as proper identification of risky 
      situations that warrant an HIV test. Putting traditional clinic based HIV 
      screening practice into the shadows might be too early, especially for developing 
      countries and potentially very dangerous. Encouraging self-testing as a measure 
      to accompany clinic based testing in our opinion stands as main precondition for 
      public health to invest in HIV self-testing. We agree with most authors that hard 
      to reach risky groups like men and Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) are easily 
      reached with the self-testing approach. However, linking self-testers to the 
      medical services they need remains a key challenge, and an understudied 
      indispensable obstacle in making this approach to obtain its desired goals.
FAU - Bain, Luchuo Engelbert
AU  - Bain LE
AD  - Department of Military Health, Ministry of Defense, Yaounde, Cameroon; Center for 
      Population Studies and Health Promotion, CPSHP, Yaounde, Cameroon.
FAU - Ditah, Chobufo Muchi
AU  - Ditah CM
AD  - Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University of 
      Jerusalem, Israel.
FAU - Awah, Paschal Kum
AU  - Awah PK
AD  - Center for Population Studies and Health Promotion, CPSHP, Yaounde, Cameroon; 
      Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences, FALSS, Department of Anthropology, 
      University of Yaounde I, Cameroon.
FAU - Ekukwe, Nkoke Clovis
AU  - Ekukwe NC
AD  - Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Department of Internal Medicine and 
      Specialties, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20161026
PL  - Uganda
TA  - Pan Afr Med J
JT  - The Pan African medical journal
JID - 101517926
SB  - IM
MH  - Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active/methods
MH  - Developing Countries
MH  - HIV Infections/*diagnosis/drug therapy
MH  - Humans
MH  - Mass Screening/ethics/*methods
MH  - Patient Acceptance of Health Care
MH  - Personal Autonomy
MH  - Public Health
MH  - Self Care/ethics/*methods
MH  - Social Stigma
PMC - PMC5325486
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - AIDS
OT  - Ethics
OT  - HIV
OT  - Self-testing
COIS- The authors declare no competing interest.
EDAT- 2017/03/16 06:00
MHDA- 2017/04/05 06:00
PMCR- 2016/10/26
CRDT- 2017/03/16 06:00
PHST- 2015/10/28 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2015/12/17 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2017/03/16 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2017/03/16 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2017/04/05 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2016/10/26 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - PAMJ-25-114 [pii]
AID - 10.11604/pamj.2016.25.114.8303 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Pan Afr Med J. 2016 Oct 26;25:114. doi: 10.11604/pamj.2016.25.114.8303. 
      eCollection 2016.