New Zealanders who want to know if they are HIV positive can now access home tests from the pharmacy for the first time.
The test costs $39.99 and with a simple finger-prick blood sample can return a result in about 15 minutes.
Jane Bruning, the national co-ordinator for HIV services organisation Positive Women Inc, said it’s an important step in reducing stigma, which is the biggest barrier for people with HIV.
“If you had asked me five or 10 years ago whether that was a good idea, I would have probably said no because the stigma and fear around HIV would be horrible for someone to have a positive test at home by themselves.
“I think it’s timely now that we need to promote HIV testing as part of a general sexual health test.
“At the moment, a lot of places, if you go for a sexual health test, they don’t include HIV. So it should be just included in that and one of the ways to really open it up is to be able to just go into a chemist and buy it off the shelf,” she said.
Bruning has been living with HIV since 1988 and said it’s “no longer a death sentence any more”.
“I was told I had three years to live, there were no medications in the late 80s.
“I was fortunate enough to get on to the AZT trials, which I think somehow helped me to hang on until the antiretrovirals came out, so the science has just shifted hugely.
“The messaging around that change hasn’t got to the wider world and so the stigma is still the biggest barrier for people living with HIV and like I said, one of the ways to break that stigma is to kind of make it normal.
“I kind of think about when the pregnancy test first came out in the supermarkets, I’m sure there was a lot of concern and fear around that but now that’s become normalised and it’s accepted and I think that will be the same with the HIV testing.”
HIV support groups in New Zealand say having these home tests available at pharmacies is another step towards the goal of eliminating HIV transmission by 2030.
Mark Fisher, executive director of Body Positive Inc, said the success of Covid-19 tests during the pandemic has helped the introduction of HIV home test products.
“I think before Covid, self-testing was a bit alien to people and they were a bit intimidated and scared on how complex it was.
“But now everybody’s doing Covid all the time. They’re always doing testing. So, it’s become a very normal and standard thing.
“I know lots of people even now are still going out, picking up Covid tests and getting a test. So I think that’s where we want to move the HIV and the sexual health thing.
“So, it just becomes really convenient and accessible and means I don’t have an awkward conversation with a doctor about my sexual behaviour,” he said.
A test for HIV can now be done quickly and cheaply. Photo / 123RF
While there have been many advancements for people living with HIV, there are still many issues to overcome, particularly with stigmas around gay and bisexual men.
“Unfortunately, we kind of reinforce that messaging as well, because that’s where the majority of HIV is in that space, so it kind of reinforces that it’s more amongst gay and bisexual men.
“But in reality, globally, more than 50% of people living with HIV are women and that really surprises people, because they don’t think of it like that.
“So, people haven’t moved past the point of stigmatising and boxing HIV into the gay and bisexual men’s space when it should just be treated like sexual health.
“If you’re having sex, you should be getting tested for gonorrhoea, chlamydia, syphilis, HIV, just to make sure everything’s okay, and just take care of your health. It’s about being sexually responsible,” Fisher said.
About 3500 New Zealanders receive treatment for the HIV virus, which attacks the body’s immune system.
