China's Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention (NCAIDS), a national-level professional agency engaged in STD/AIDS prevention and control, has announced that it plans to make HIV self-test kits easily accessible.

Although China's HIV/AIDS epidemic "maintains a low prevalence trend," the center said it still plans to "reach out to those under the radar, helping to link them to care."

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According to South China Morning Post, many public health providers have attributed the uptick of HIV cases to the lack of availability of HIV testing. Although around 130 million tests were conducted in 2014, which is nearly twice to that of the in 2013, officials are still calling for more action.

"Current screening practices appear to have lost momentum in detecting patients," Wu Zun-you, NCAIDS' head, told China Daily in April. He, however, did not specify when the plan will be implemented.

In China, there are still doubts over FDA-approved over-the-counter or online sale of HIV self-test kits. That is why only medical professionals so far use these kits.

On the other hand, both the United States and Britain have legalized the use of HIV self-test kit in 2012 and 2014, respectively. In Hong Kong, the plan began in 1995, but it took a decade for it to be finally implemented.

Although the guideline is still currently under discussions, according to Wu, a number of Chinese platforms including Alibaba and Taobao are already selling these self-test kits.

According to Alibaba Group's retail marketplace, the buyers of these kits, who are aged between 18 and 24 years old, have soared by 98 percent year-on-year. Furthermore, 83 percent of buyers with repeat purchases were men, and more than half of those (59 percent) were between the ages of 20 to 29.

Such trend, according to Hank Chen, a 20-year-old public welfare director at an LGBT resource platform who submitted himself for HIV testing, is growing since "it doesn't require contact with medical staff, and people can avoid discrimination."

Catherine Sozi, director of UNAIDS China, said these self-tests kits have been proven "very accurate, specific, and sensitive." However, Liu Shi, a program manager of the China Aids Walk initiative at Beijing Gender Health Education Institute, emphasized that pre-test consultations and health teachings if results turn out positive are equally significant.

"Some people are not ready psychologically for self-detection," he said. "If you're using [a] self-test, you are more likely to find out about the result and little about the knowledge and understanding of HIV/AIDS, and how to prevent it."

Tagschina, HIV, AIDS, HIV self-test kits