About 3500 New Zealanders live with HIV. 212 new infections were registered in 2019. The group that is still most at risk is homosexual and bisexual men. But only 50 percent of New Zealand’s homo- and bisexual men are estimated to go to the doctor regularly to get tested according to NZAF. Auckland has therefore installed three HIV rapid test machines since October. The machines were developed by the New Zealand AIDS Foundation (NZAF).

The NZAF’s chairman, Dr. Jason Myers, hopes that the new vending machines will change that.

“As we all know, HIV is most harmful when it is undiagnosed,” Myers emphasises. This makes it all the more important to “meet people where they meet” and to provide them with the tools they need to take control of their sexual health.

HIV rapid test machine in the Centurian Sauna in Auckland.

In order to lower these barriers to accessing HIV tests, the vending machines were set up directly at places where men gather who have sexual intercourse with men, for instance in the lobby of saunas or on the way to the darkroom.

Initial figures speak for themselves

That seems to work well. During the pilot phase with a rapid test machine at Centurian Sauna in Auckland, it was found that of the 162 people who used the tests, 28 percent had not taken a test in the previous 12 months.

50 per cent of sauna visitors stated that they had not been publicly outed. For Myers, this is a good indicator that the vending machine tests are reaching those who need them most. Men who are afraid of being “outed” and men who cannot afford health care. For them, rapid test vending machines are a discreet way to get tested.

$26,100 was spent on the three vending machines, which were put into operation in October. They were financed thanks to support from the ProCare Charitable Foundation, New Zealand’s largest association of GPs. According to the press release, the tests, which can be taken from the vending machines, are free of charge and provide information about a possible infection within minutes.

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