Background HIV testing is the first step to access both HIV treatment and prevention. While there have been tremendous efforts to close the HIV testing gap, 2.7 million people in east and southern Africa still do not know their status. Men and adolescents remain a challenge to reach. The Unitaid funded and Population Services International (PSI) led HIV Self-Testing Africa (STAR) is a five-year Initiative to catalyse the scale up of HIV self-testing (HIVST). It began with establishing the evidence base and product introduction (formation), moved to inclusion of HIVST in national plans and guidelines (early scale-up), and now optimisation of service delivery for scale-up. The results have informed WHO guidance and the development of national-level policy on HIVST. In addition, the evidence generated has transformed the testing landscape, informed estimates of the market size, and encouraged market entry among potential HIVST kit manufacturers.

Discussion In this symposium we will discuss key developments toward HIVST scale-up and the evidence generated from the STAR Initiative in six African countries. We will summarise the evidence for how HIVST has supported adolescents and men to gain knowledge of their HIV status and linked them into HIV care. We will describe the consortium plans to understand the use of this person-centred technology to link young men and women to HIV prevention, and in particular voluntary male medical circumcision and HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis. Finally, we will discuss the value that our large consortium with close relationships to national and international health policy makers brought to shaping the market and building the public health evidence. Specifically, the involvement of policy and market developments supported by WHO; country-led research teams, supported by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; using randomised controlled trials to evaluate rigorous interventions independently implemented by experienced country-based implementation teams (PSI).

Disclosure No significant relationships.