Abstract
Background: Social media and secondary distribution (distributing self-testing kits by indexes through their networks) both show strong promise to improve human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) self-testing uptake. We assessed an implementation program in Zhuhai, China, which focused on the secondary distribution of HIV/syphilis self-test kits among men who have sex with men (MSM) via social media. Methods: Men aged ≥16 years, born biologically male, and ever had sex with another man were recruited as indexes. Banner ads on a social media platform invited the participants to apply for up to 5 self-test kits every 3 months. Index men paid a deposit of US$15/kit refundable upon submitting a photograph of a completed test result via an online submission system. They were informed that they could distribute the kits to others (referred to as "alters"). Results: A total of 371 unique index men applied for 1150 kits (mean age, 28.7 [standard deviation, 6.9] years), of which 1141 test results were returned (99%). Among them, 1099 were valid test results; 810 (74%) were from 331 unique index men, and 289 tests (26%) were from 281 unique alters. Compared to index men, a higher proportion of alters were naive HIV testers (40% vs 21%; P <. 001). The total HIV self-test reactivity rate was 3%, with alters having a significantly higher rate than indexes (5% vs 2%; P =. 008). A total of 21 people (3%) had a reactive syphilis test result. Conclusions: Integrating social media with the secondary distribution of self-test kits may hold promise to increase HIV/syphilis testing coverage and case identification among MSM.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | E2251-E2257 |
Journal | Clinical Infectious Diseases |
Volume | 73 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: [email protected].
Keywords
- HIV
- MSM
- men who have sex with men
- secondary distribution
- self-testing
- social media