ArticlePloS one2018
Evaluation of the practicability and virological performance of finger-stick whole-blood HIV self-testing in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- A systematic review of qualitative evidence on factors enabling and deterring uptake of HIV self-testing in Africa.BMC public health · 2019Pooled it
- Reliability of HIV rapid diagnostic tests for self-testing compared with testing by health-care workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The lancet. HIV · 2018Pooled it
- Comparison of practicability and effectiveness between unassisted HIV self-testing and directly assisted HIV self-testing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a randomized feasibility trial.BMC infectious diseases · 2020Trial
- Syndemic Synergy of HPV, HIV, and HSV-2 for Oncogenic HPV Replication in Female Sex Workers.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2025Article
- Article
- Sensitivity and specificity of OraQuick® HIV self-test compared to a 4th generation laboratory reference standard algorithm in urban and rural Zambia.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Article
- HIV self-testing implementation, distribution and use among female sex workers in Cotonou, Benin: a qualitative evaluation of acceptability and feasibility.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Analytical performances of ExactoThe Pan African medical journal · 2022Article
- Association between socio-economic factors and HIV self-testing knowledge amongst South African women.Southern African journal of HIV medicine · 2022Article
- Evaluation of the Practicability of Biosynex Antigen Self-Test COVID-19 AG+ for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein from Self-Collected Nasal Mid-Turbinate Secretions in the General Public in France.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Double-Antigen Lateral Flow Immunoassay for the Detection of Anti-HIV-1 and -2 Antibodies Using Upconverting Nanoparticle Reporters.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Implementation outcomes of HIV self-testing in low- and middle- income countries: A scoping review.PloS one · 2021Article
- Uptake of HIV/AIDS Services Following a Positive Self-Test Is Lower in Men Than Women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Article
- Enthusiasm for Introducing and Integrating HIV Self-Testing but Doubts About Users: A Baseline Qualitative Analysis of Key Stakeholders' Attitudes and Perceptions in Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Senegal.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Article
- Analytical Performance of the Exacto Test HIV Self-Test: A Cross-Sectional Field Study in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Open forum infectious diseases · 2020Article
- Level of knowledge, acceptability, and willingness to use oral fluid HIV self-testing among medical students in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania: a descriptive cross-sectional study.AIDS research and therapy · 2020Article
- Is HIV Self-Testing a Strategy to Increase Repeat Testing Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women? A Pilot Mixed Methods Study.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2020Article
- A qualitative study on oral-fluid-based HIV self-testing experiences among men in Kigali, Rwanda.The Pan African medical journal · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOpportunities for HIV testing could be enhanced by offering HIV self-testing (HIVST) in populations that fear stigma and discrimination when accessing conventional HIV counselling and testing in health care facilities. Field experience with HIVST has not yet been reported in French-speaking African countries.
methodsThe practicability of HIVST was assessed using the prototype the Exacto® Test HIV (Biosynex, Strasbourg, France) self-test in 322 adults living in Kisangani and Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to World Health Organization's recommendations. Simplified and easy-to-read leaflet was translated in French, Lingala and Swahili.
resultsForty-nine percent of participants read the instructions for use in French, while 17.1% and 33.9% read the instructions in Lingala and Swahili, respectively. The instructions for use were correctly understood in 79.5% of cases. The majority (98.4%) correctly performed the HIV self-test; however, 20.8% asked for oral assistance. Most of the participants (95.3%) found that performing the self-test was easy, while 4.7% found it difficult. Overall, the results were correctly interpreted in 90.2% of cases. Among the positive, negative, and invalid self-tests, misinterpretation occurred in 6.5%, 11.2%, and 16.0% of cases, respectively (P<0.0001). The Cohen's κ coefficient was 0.84. The main obstacle for HIVST was educational level, with execution and interpretation difficulties occurring among poorly educated people. The Exacto® Test HIV self-test showed 100.0% (95% CI; 98.8-100.0) sensitivity and 99.2% (95% CI; 97.5-99.8) specificity.
conclusionsOur field observations demonstrate: (i) the need to adapt the instructions for use to the Congolese general public, including adding educational pictograms as well as instructions for use in the local vernacular language(s); (ii) frequent difficulties understanding the instructions for use in addition to frequent misinterpretation of test results; and (iii) the generally good practicability of the HIV self-test despite some limitations. Supervised use of HIVST is recommended among poorly-educated people.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.