In Africa alone, 85% of COVID-19 infections are going undetected according to WHO. This inequity in access to the diagnostic tools that trigger life-saving individual and public health measures is part of the same 'medical apartheid' that has plagued the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
Self-testing is a necessary tool to enable rapid linkage to care and initiation of outpatient treatment to prevent hospitalisation and death, especially among those at high risk of disease progression.
Self-testing has the capacity of greatly expanding the number of people who know that they have contracted COVID-19 and are likely to be infectious to others. Access to self-tests promises significant benefits, particularly in resource-limited and geographically remote settings that lack sufficient RT-PCR testing capacity. Even in areas with RT-PCR testing know- how, self-testing can increase uptake among marginalised populations who are less able to and/ or likely to engage with the health system because of stigma, discrimination or unaffordability.
Over one hundred organizations that were signatories to this open letter, included: Amnesty International, AVAC, CNS (Citizen News Service), Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, Global Network of People Living with HIV, Global Network of Sex Work Projects, Health Global Access Project (Health GAP), Health Justice Initiative South Africa, International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) Latina, International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, Oxfam, Partners in Health (PIH), Third World Network, Treatment Action Group, Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign Zambia, among others.
Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant - CNS (Citizen News Service)
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