Vending machines with free self-diagnostic kits for sexually transmitted diseases have appeared in Britain, supported by the Brighton and Sussex Medical School and the Martin Fisher Foundation. They can be found in more than 10 locations across the Bristol and Brighton areas.
The initiative aims to overcome the barriers that prevent people from taking tests and getting tested.
According to the World Health Organization, which has called for improved access to testing and diagnostic services, barriers such as the hassle of going to the doctor, the stigma of attending sexual health clinics and a lack of awareness of testing options contribute to more than one million new cases of sexually transmitted infections (known as STIs) worldwide every day.
A study related to the effectiveness of vending machine availability, published this month, found that more than half of their users said it was their first STI test.
Jaime Vera, Professor of HIV Medicine at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, who led the project, emphasizes that people seeing these machines think, “You know what, this is OK, I’m going to use this,” and it starts to normalize testing rates.
According to Nicholas Medland, former president of the Australasian HIV, Sexual Health and Viral Hepatitis Medicine and now at the University of New South Wales Kirby Institute, testing is an important part of reducing the spread of STIs because people need to know they have an STI in order to receive treatment and avoid spreading the infection to others. He also believes that vending machine tests should be available as a supplement to existing services and not as a replacement for clinics. In addition, their availability should not be an excuse to cut funding for clinics.