The Martin Fisher Foundation and University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust launched three new sexual health and HIV vending machines on Friday 18 June 2021. These machines are sited across the city in the centre (The Jubilee Library), the West (Portland Road, between Wish Park Surgery and Kamson Pharmacy) and the East (the Wellsbourne Centre, Whitehawk), providing easy access to kits in these areas.
The award-winning digital vending machines were developed by the Martin Fisher Foundation in collaboration with academics from BSMS in 2017 and funded by Public Health England (PHE) as part of the HIV Prevention Innovation Fund. Initially they were designed to distribute HIV self-tests, however, in response to user feedback they have developed them to additionally provide sexual health testing kits. This was also in response to the Coronavirus pandemic where people have been less able to access clinical services. Additionally, for people reluctant to access traditional healthcare settings, placing the machines in the community will reduce barriers to HIV testing, whilst facilitating confidentiality, privacy and convenience.
The sexual health kits contain swabs and blood sampling equipment which will be tested for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis and HIV when returned through the post to the Sexual Health Clinic. The HIV self-tests are extremely accurate (99.7%) and, by using a single drop of blood, give a result in just 15 minutes.
The kits are for people without symptoms who want to check their sexual health or HIV status. Brighton & Hove is a HIV Fast Track City which means we’re working together to STOP all new cases of HIV by 2030. For this to happen everyone at risk of HIV needs to take an HIV test and be aware of their HIV status. Having testing kits freely and more readily available will help us achieve this goal.
Dr Jaime Vera, Senior Lecturer in HIV at BSMS and Trustee of the Martin Fisher Foundation said: “This innovation is critical to overcome some of the challenges posed by the pandemic, allowing easy access to STI testing in the community.”
The world-first touch-screen machines are unique in that during the interaction they collect anonymous user information (age, sex, sexuality, town of residence, testing history) which can help us improve sexual health services in the future. They are either wall mounted or placed on a sturdy stand with dimensions are 1,000 (height) x 445 (width) x 280mm (depth).
Three further sexual health and HIV vending machines are planned for fitting in the Brighton Sauna, the Black & Minority Ethnic Community Partnership (BMECP) Centre and AMEX head office later in the year.