An Online HIV Self-Sampling Strategy for Gay, Bisexual and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men and Trans Women in Spain
Martínez-Riveros et al.
The finding, in our words
An online service that mailed saliva self-sampling kits to 4623 GBMSM and trans women achieved a 67.5% return rate, detected 2.45% HIV prevalence with 100% linkage to care, and was recommended by 98% of participants, proving feasibility for decentralised screening.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Among 780 sub-Saharan African migrants attending community outreach sessions in Antwerp, 18.2% underwent HIV testing via oral fluid self-sampling, with 78.9% collecting their results (56.3% via a secure website). Acceptance was higher among women and in church settings with engaged community leaders, demonstrating that decentralised, patient-centric screening can overcome cultural barriers and reach underserved populations who avoid blood draws.
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.
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.
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.
The study found that the Test2Know postal self-sampling service was highly acceptable and usable, with nearly 90% of users willing to reuse or recommend it, and it reached individuals at risk who had not previously tested for HIV or STIs. This supports the role of decentralised, patient-centric microsampling in expanding access to sexual health testing.