Feasibility of an internet-based HIV testing service: anonymous urine collection from men who have sex with men

ABSTRACTA large proportion of people who are HIV positive do not know their serostatus because facility-based provider-initiated HIV testing and counseling, and voluntary counseling and testing, have not been efficiently implemented in China. Therefore, a new HIV testing strategy must be developed to improve testing services so that more HIV infections can be detected earlier. In this study, we established an anonymous internet-aided urine-based HIV testing service for men who have sex with men (MSM) from 1 April 2016 to 20 January 2017. In total, 3092 urine sample collection packs were distributed by grassroots organizations to MSM; 1977 (69.3%) packs were mailed back to the laboratory; and 1911 (96.7%) eligible samples were tested for HIV antibody. The rate of HIV antibody positivity was 7.1% (135/1901), excluding 10 previously-identified HIV infections. Of those tested, 65.4% (1243/1901) participants obtained their results from our website, 94 (69.6%) of 135 newly-identified urine HIV antibody-positive...