Do you know your status? According to UNAIDS,there are around 1.5 million people living with HIV in Kenya, around 400,000 of whom are unaware that they have the virus. If people do not know their status, it is impossible for them to access life-saving treatment. Furthermore, not knowing your status increases the risk of infecting others in-case you are positive.
If you’d like to get know your status in the comfort of your home you may use a HIV self-test kit which is available through public and private health facilities and selected pharmacies.The government has approved two brands of the self test kits: an oral swab test and a blood sample one. The tests cost between Ksh. 800 – Ksh. 1,000. One is, however, advised to follow-up with professional counselling services in-case they get a positive result.
The self test kits that are available are below.
HIV Self Test
The HIV home test can be purchased from various pharmacies such as Goodlife, KAM Pharmacy, Yaya Chemist among others. Find the full list here and/or the jpeg here.
Additionally, here’s a list of places you may visit the following places for the test:
- National and County Hospitals
- Private hospitals such as Aga Khan, Nairobi Hospital, Karen Hospital and Mater Hospital.
- Better2know Clinics
- Marie Stopes Kenya Clinics
- Liverpool VCT( LVCT) Centres
- AIDS related NGOs such as AMURT (Nairobi, Likoni & Malindi), FACES (Nairobi, Southern Nyanza & Kisumu).
- Family Planning Centres
- Lancet Kenya Ltd (Nairobi, Kisii, Kisumu, Voi, Garissa, Mombasa, Nyali, Thika, Eldoret and Malindi).
- Some of the organizations listed above charge for testing while others offer free testing.