Cargando…
Ethical implications of HIV self-testing: the game is far from being over
The use of combined Anti-Retroviral Therapy (cART) has been revolutionary in the history of the fight against HIV-AIDS, with remarkable reductions in HIV associated morbidity and mortality. Knowing one's HIV status early, not only increases chances of early initiation of effective, affordable a...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The African Field Epidemiology Network
2016
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5325486/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28292077 http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2016.25.114.8303 |
_version_ | 1782510394589315072 |
---|---|
author | Bain, Luchuo Engelbert Ditah, Chobufo Muchi Awah, Paschal Kum Ekukwe, Nkoke Clovis |
author_facet | Bain, Luchuo Engelbert Ditah, Chobufo Muchi Awah, Paschal Kum Ekukwe, Nkoke Clovis |
author_sort | Bain, Luchuo Engelbert |
collection | PubMed |
description | The use of combined Anti-Retroviral Therapy (cART) has been revolutionary in the history of the fight against HIV-AIDS, with remarkable reductions in HIV associated morbidity and mortality. Knowing one's HIV status early, not only increases chances of early initiation of effective, affordable and available treatment, but has lately been associated with an important potential to reduce disease transmission. A public health priority lately has been to lay emphasis on early and wide spread HIV screening. With many countries having already in the market over the counter self-testing kits, the ethical question whether self-testing in HIV with such kits is acceptable remains unanswered. Many Western authors have been firm on the fact that this approach enhances patient autonomy and is ethically grounded. We argue that the notion of patient autonomy as proposed by most ethicists assumes perfect understanding of information around HIV, neglects HIV associated stigma as well as proper identification of risky situations that warrant an HIV test. Putting traditional clinic based HIV screening practice into the shadows might be too early, especially for developing countries and potentially very dangerous. Encouraging self-testing as a measure to accompany clinic based testing in our opinion stands as main precondition for public health to invest in HIV self-testing. We agree with most authors that hard to reach risky groups like men and Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) are easily reached with the self-testing approach. However, linking self-testers to the medical services they need remains a key challenge, and an understudied indispensable obstacle in making this approach to obtain its desired goals. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5325486 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | The African Field Epidemiology Network |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-53254862017-03-10 Ethical implications of HIV self-testing: the game is far from being over Bain, Luchuo Engelbert Ditah, Chobufo Muchi Awah, Paschal Kum Ekukwe, Nkoke Clovis Pan Afr Med J Commentary The use of combined Anti-Retroviral Therapy (cART) has been revolutionary in the history of the fight against HIV-AIDS, with remarkable reductions in HIV associated morbidity and mortality. Knowing one's HIV status early, not only increases chances of early initiation of effective, affordable and available treatment, but has lately been associated with an important potential to reduce disease transmission. A public health priority lately has been to lay emphasis on early and wide spread HIV screening. With many countries having already in the market over the counter self-testing kits, the ethical question whether self-testing in HIV with such kits is acceptable remains unanswered. Many Western authors have been firm on the fact that this approach enhances patient autonomy and is ethically grounded. We argue that the notion of patient autonomy as proposed by most ethicists assumes perfect understanding of information around HIV, neglects HIV associated stigma as well as proper identification of risky situations that warrant an HIV test. Putting traditional clinic based HIV screening practice into the shadows might be too early, especially for developing countries and potentially very dangerous. Encouraging self-testing as a measure to accompany clinic based testing in our opinion stands as main precondition for public health to invest in HIV self-testing. We agree with most authors that hard to reach risky groups like men and Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) are easily reached with the self-testing approach. However, linking self-testers to the medical services they need remains a key challenge, and an understudied indispensable obstacle in making this approach to obtain its desired goals. The African Field Epidemiology Network 2016-10-26 /pmc/articles/PMC5325486/ /pubmed/28292077 http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2016.25.114.8303 Text en © Luchuo Engelbert Bain et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Commentary Bain, Luchuo Engelbert Ditah, Chobufo Muchi Awah, Paschal Kum Ekukwe, Nkoke Clovis Ethical implications of HIV self-testing: the game is far from being over |
title | Ethical implications of HIV self-testing: the game is far from being over |
title_full | Ethical implications of HIV self-testing: the game is far from being over |
title_fullStr | Ethical implications of HIV self-testing: the game is far from being over |
title_full_unstemmed | Ethical implications of HIV self-testing: the game is far from being over |
title_short | Ethical implications of HIV self-testing: the game is far from being over |
title_sort | ethical implications of hiv self-testing: the game is far from being over |
topic | Commentary |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5325486/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28292077 http://dx.doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2016.25.114.8303 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT bainluchuoengelbert ethicalimplicationsofhivselftestingthegameisfarfrombeingover AT ditahchobufomuchi ethicalimplicationsofhivselftestingthegameisfarfrombeingover AT awahpaschalkum ethicalimplicationsofhivselftestingthegameisfarfrombeingover AT ekukwenkokeclovis ethicalimplicationsofhivselftestingthegameisfarfrombeingover |