Mzimba yet to roll out HIV self-testing

Mzimba is yet to roll out  implementation of HIV self-testing services because people assigned to distribute the kits are yet to be trained.

In an interview  yesterday,  Mzimba district acting director of health and social services  Lumbani Munthali attributed the delay to lack of trained distributors.

He said: “The HIV self-testing programme requires distributors, who are involved in distributing the kits, provide counselling, recommendations and link the data to the health office.

“So, MoH [Ministry of Health] is yet to train these distributors for Mzimba and we are waiting for that. Once these people are trained in the services, then we will roll out the programme in the district.”

According to Munthali, HIV prevalence rate for the district is at 3.5 percent.

MoH spokesperson Joshua Malango asked for more time before commenting on the issue.

HIV self-testing is generally conducted using rapid test kits, by inserting a mouth swab (and oral-fluid) in the mouth and results are showed within 20 minutes.

MoH launched the HIV self-testing operational guidelines for Malawi on December 2 last year at the 2018 World Aids Day at Jenda Trading Centre in Mzimba.n