Health Ministry to expand HIV testing push in 2026

The Min­istry of Health will ex­pand com­mu­ni­ty-based HIV test­ing and in­crease ac­cess to self-test­ing next year as it push­es to strength­en re­ten­tion in care and roll out a na­tion­al an­ti-stig­ma cam­paign.

Of­fi­cials say tar­get­ed in­ter­ven­tions for vul­ner­a­ble groups and greater psy­choso­cial sup­port for peo­ple liv­ing with HIV will form part of the 2026 plan, along­side deep­er col­lab­o­ra­tion with civ­il so­ci­ety groups.

To­day’s World AIDS Day ob­ser­vance comes un­der the glob­al theme, “Over­com­ing Dis­rup­tion Trans­form­ing the AIDS Re­sponse.” The Min­istry says the aim is to main­tain mo­men­tum and close re­main­ing gaps in pre­ven­tion, treat­ment and dis­crim­i­na­tion.

Most peo­ple liv­ing with HIV are al­ready on an­ti­retro­vi­ral ther­a­py (ART), with the ma­jor­i­ty achiev­ing vi­ral sup­pres­sion. Treat­ment re­mains free at clin­ics across the coun­try, and the Med­ical Re­search Foun­da­tion TT con­tin­ues to sup­port most peo­ple ac­cess­ing ART.

Of­fi­cials say ear­ly di­ag­no­sis and pre­ven­tion re­main crit­i­cal. Over the past year, the Min­istry in­tro­duced home-based HIV self-test­ing and formed the Link­age to Care Team, which con­nects peo­ple to treat­ment and sup­port through Peer Nav­i­ga­tors, So­cial Work­ers and coun­selling ser­vices. Out­reach pro­grammes have in­ten­si­fied in com­mu­ni­ties, schools and work­places, and the pro­gramme to elim­i­nate moth­er-to-child trans­mis­sion con­tin­ues.

How­ev­er, health of­fi­cials ac­knowl­edge stig­ma re­mains one of the biggest bar­ri­ers to ac­cess. Re­ports of work­place dis­crim­i­na­tion per­sist, and the Min­istry has widened pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion ef­forts as part of its re­sponse.

Mark­ing World AIDS Day 2025, the Min­istry re­peat­ed its ap­peal for cit­i­zens, in­sti­tu­tions and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers to help build a sys­tem where “every­one can ac­cess care with dig­ni­ty and re­spect,” as it pur­sues the long-stat­ed goal of end­ing AIDS as a pub­lic health threat by 2030.