COVID-19: Why Self-testing Is Important – Stakeholders

Stakeholders in the health sector have advocated for self-testing awareness and availability of self-test kits to help Nigerians know their health status early enough and take care of their home health.

The national vice chairman, Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, Bridget Otote, stressed the need for increased awareness on self-testing in the country, saying self-testing was the way to go.
Otote stated this at the Self-testing Africa COVID-19 (STAR – COVID 19) Project Dissemination Meeting, organised by the Society for Family Health (SFH) in collaboration with the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) in Abuja.

The Self-testing Africa COVID-19 (STAR – COVID 19) is a market research project funded by UNITAID with Population Services International (PSI) as the Lead Technical partner.
The objective of the project is to gather evidence on feasibility, acceptability, usability, and cost effectiveness of existing as well as new diagnostic tools and use cases and delivery approaches to inform global and national policies.

Otote, who served as director, lead programme delivery of the project, said:”Self testing is already helping because even the HIV AIDS that is so scary, clients now walk in to ask for self-testing kits .
‘The more testing that is done in the country, the faster people discover that they have been infected with these infectious diseases and the faster they get help and the probability of recovery is usually higher when you discover early and start treating early.

“My recommendation is that just like these non governmental agencies have come in to support this self-testing program to avail people the opportunity to get tested at home ,the government should either subsidize or even make it free so that people can just walk in, pick up these kits and get tested.

She, however, regretted that since it was a self-testing,”many people who obtained kits did not return to give report for documentation so as to send to the NCDC.”

Also speaker, representative of the Society for Family Health, Omoregie Godspower,
who was part of those that designed the project with colleagues from the Population Services International, Centre for Research and the London School of Tropical Vaccine and Hygiene, said Nigeria was ripe for self-testing.

He said “Nigeria is ripe for self-testing. Self-testing is becoming very common and under the purview of self-care within the WHO context. It’s like putting the power in the hands of the consumers and ensuring that people take responsibility and take charge of their health. This is because knowledge is actually improving,”he said.
In the same vein, the director of research at Zankli and senior lecturer at Bingham University, Dr John Samson, said people should be allowed to undertake self-testing as obtainable in advanced world.

“Basically what we have learned as a nation is that self testing has actually come to stay. It’s something that is being done now. In developed climates and then we should not be left behind. Because there’s this emphasis now on patient centred care.

“People should be enabled to take care of their home health. Just like women can go and do their check whether they’re pregnant or not using a PT bought in a pharmacy or chemist

“So technology has made it in such a way that people are enabled to be able to take care of themselves so that they will take those decisions.

“Because if somebody can take that decision and do the testing before it either spread to his family’s spread to his house, you know, when he started feeling some of these symptoms, he can say, Okay, let me check whether it’s this so that he will take all the necessary precaution and take the decision that will help overall; the health system and him as an individual,” he explained.

The STAR- COVID-19 project is implemented in FCT –Abuja across the six area councils, targeting persons within the urban and rural settlement which cuts across Primary Healthcare Centres (PHC) community pharmacists/patent medicine shops, workplace, tertiary institution and motor parks.