Results from the study were simultaneously published online in JAMA.
Although home-based testing for HIV by trained workers has become common in remote areas such as northern Lesotho, those who test positive may be lost to care and become reservoirs of infection in their communities.
In fact, only 33% of those who test positive at home take the necessary steps to receive care and start on lifelong viral suppression therapy, and “two out of three who tested positive actually remain without ART,” Dr, Labhardt said.
Compressing the testing-to-ART cascade into a single day as a means of getting more patients to start on ART has been accomplished successfully in the clinic, but never before in the home-based setting, he noted.