A qualitative assessment of the acceptability of hepatitis C remote self-testing and self-sampling amongst people who use drugs in London, UK
Guise et al.
The finding, in our words
Remote hepatitis C self-testing and self-sampling are broadly acceptable among people who use drugs, with rapid saliva testing preferred over delayed blood sample results. However, successful uptake requires clear integration into supportive care pathways to help individuals manage positive diagnoses.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Capillary blood self-collected with the VAMS device showed 100 per cent agreement with serum for detecting SARS-CoV-2 S RBD antibodies in participants with known past infection, and saliva showed slightly lower but high agreement; agreement was good to almost perfect in those without known antibodies, and most participants found finger prick easy while half found the microsampler easy, supporting decentralised serosurveillance.
Capillary blood self-sampling achieved 98.3% agreement with venous samples for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies and 100% for IgA among 60 participants, demonstrating accuracy for vaccine monitoring. Saliva self-collection proved feasible with excellent usability, offering a patient-centric alternative for decentralised immunogenicity assessment.
Schmetzer et al., Frontiers in public health · source ↗
Eighty-four per cent of 148 diverse US adults found self-collection of saliva, oropharyngeal swabs and dried blood spots for SARS-CoV-2 testing acceptable, and 87 per cent were confident their specimens were sufficient for laboratory analysis. The lack of demographic differences in acceptability supports broad feasibility of decentralised diagnostics.
An online HIV risk assessment promoted via gay social media reached 17,361 men who have sex with men, with 5,696 returning home-collected blood or oral fluid samples. The service identified 82 new HIV diagnoses (1.4% positivity) with high acceptability, showing decentralised screening can effectively detect undiagnosed HIV in this population.
Elliot et al., Sexually transmitted infections (paywalled) · source ↗
Most internet-using men who have sex with men reported high acceptability for HIV testing options including rapid oral fluid self-testing, but home dried blood spot self-collection ranked lowest in intended usage preference. This suggests that while decentralised HIV screening is acceptable to this population, DBS self-collection methods face particular acceptability challenges that must be addressed to optimise uptake.