HIV/AIDS: Federal Government Inaugurates Operational Guidelines For HIV Self Testing - Liberty TV/Radio - News - Voice For All! Vision For Alll!
Editor 4
April 13, 2019
The Federal Government has inaugurated the Operational Guideline for HIV self-testing and the Evaluation Report of Alere HIV Combo Rapid Test Kit towards ending HIV/AIDS as a public health challenge in Nigeria.
The Minister of Health Isaac Adewole who inaugurated the documents in Abuja, noted that in Nigeria, just like in many countries, detection of specific antibodies in the blood or other body fluids was the main method and standard procedure for diagnosis of HIV infection.
He said prior to this time, several uncontrolled HIV test kits especially rapid test kits were used in Nigeria without any regard to quality or following any appropriate testing strategy.
This, the Minister said, increased the possibility of misdiagnosis of HIV infections, stressing that the ministry considered this unacceptable and thus embarked on appropriate evaluation of HIV rapid test kits.
Adewole said Nigeria has conducted some rounds of evaluation of HIV rapid test kits using the World Health Organisation, WHO guidelines for appropriate evaluation of HIV Testing Technologies in Africa.