Senegal is in the process of accelerating its response to HIV/AIDS in order to achieve the 90-90-90 objectives by 2020. As part of this drive, a saliva self-test will soon be made available to the population, to enable them to find out their serological status without the assistance of a health professional. This is a simple test which the patient can read the result himself in just 20 minutes. In a pilot phase in the regions of Dakar and Ziguinchor, the self-test has already enabled 1,700 people to find out their serological status. It is planned to distribute 70,000 self-tests in Senegal in March 2019. The introduction of self-tests will reduce new infections and HIV-related mortality for a period of 3.5 years.
Daouda Diouf, Executive Director of Enda Santé
This project will contribute to the achievement of the first 90, so that 90% of the population know their status, because there are still barriers for people to go to health facilities to be tested. Since we started, we have had a significant result with an acceptability rate of 93%. More than 1,700 people have been tested and 89% of them are in favour of distributing the test to their partners.
