London: HIV self-testing (HIVST) that involves training individuals to perform and interpret their own HIV test may prove to be a widely used, safe and accurate method of controlling the epidemic, new research has found.

These findings suggest that scaling-up HIV self-testing could complement existing strategies for the control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, only one quarter of adults have had a recent test and only half of people with HIV know their status, the study noted.