Self-testing HIV kits available at Western University to help remove screening barriers

Self-testing HIV kits are now available at Western University as a part of a nation-wide project to break stigma and to get more people diagnosed through low-barrier testing. 

St. Joseph's Health Care London estimates that in Ontario alone, there are 31,000 people living with HIV — and about 700 of those people are from the London region. 

"No one is immune to HIV, and I think the ability for students who want to test themselves or are curious about it, the easy access and ability to do it within their home at their own comfort level is wonderful," said Kelly Muhsin, a registered nurse at St. Joseph's Hospital who works with infected patients.

The free INSTI HIV self-screening kits are being distributed through the health research advocacy organization I'm Ready to Know, which is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Western follows other universities, including McMaster, in making the testing kits available. Self-testers are encouraged to anonymously share their results. 

HIV self-test kits were first available to the public in the U.S. and U.K, but they were only approved in Canada in 2020 thanks to research by Dr. Sean Rourke at St. Michael's hospital in Toronto.

Privacy may encourage HIV tests

"Not everybody wants to go see their doctor or go to a clinic," said Rourke, who helped start the I'm Ready to Know campaign. "There are people living with HIV but don't know it, and so we need to reach them through testing and get them connected to care and on treatment."

The federal government estimates about about 13 per cent of people who have contracted the virus may not know they're positive.

HIV self-screening tests are important to maintain one's own sexual health while also protecting others, Rourke said. 

"It's a huge public health benefit for people who don't know that they have HIV to be on treatment and have their virus suppressed," said Rourke. "It also allows them to protect their partners or sexual partners."

Step in changing people's understanding of HIV 

Kris Eale, a PhD student at Western in the Health Information Science program, has studied HIV/AIDS and other diseases in 22 countries across Africa and the Caribbean. He said the privacy of the self-testing HIV kits may encourage people to get tested.

"It allows them to be in their own space, when they are ready and set, they can get their own results," said Eale. 

HIV can be controlled through proper medical care so that it's not transmitted to others but it cannot be entirely cured. 

In some different religious and ethnic communities, testing positive for HIV is seen as a "death sentence" and can also result in severe backlash, Eale said.

"There is a religious stigma, where you see families that hold values like anyone should not have sex before marriage," said Eale. "We've seen in many communities where people are not respected anymore because they are HIV positive." 

He believes the self-testing kits will be a first step in changing people's understanding of HIV and controlling the HIV infection rate.

"We want to get more people to know about their own [test] status because knowing the status will help them to be more responsible toward themselves and toward other people."