STAR events
Upcoming events
iHEA 2021
This year, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the iHEA 2021 Congress will be held virtually from 12 until 15 July.
There will be two sessions organised by the STAR team:
Session: The Economics of HIV Self-Testing in Six African Countries- Insights from a Large Multi-Country, Multi-Year Economic Analysis Project. This will be chaired by Linda Sande.
Session 2161: ‘Nudge to Test’ or ‘Test as a Nudge’: Behavioural Economics and HIV Self Testing in East and Southern Africa, which will be chaired by Fern Terris-Prestholt.
Please visite the iHEA website to find out more and register.
IAS 2021
The world most influencial conference on HIV is back!
The STAR team will be delivering a number of oral and poster presentations. Our presenter’s team includes Linda Sande, Melissa Neuman and Lucheka Sigande.
Please visite the IAS website to find out more and register.
7 June 2021 – Webinar: Stepping Up Self-Care Interventions to End AIDS and Promote Good Health for All
To learn more about how to scale up sel-care and digital health interventions, join us as we discuss stepping up self-care interventions to end AIDS and promote good health for all. The STAR Research Director, Liz Corbett will be delivering a 7-minute presentation on community-led HIV self-testing results from Malawi and Zimbabwe. The webinar will take place Monday, 7 June 8:30AM EDT. Register here!
Key past events from 2019
CROI 2019 
STARing at CROI with their accepted abstract: Chido Dziva Chikwari, Tsitsi Bandason, Victoria Simms, Stefanie Dringus, Ethel Dauya, Grace McHugh, Edwin Sibanda, Rudo Chikodzore, Miriam N. Mutseta, Getrude Ncube, Sara Page-Mtongwiza, Elizabeth L. Corbett, Helen A. Weiss, Rashida Ferrand. Finding the Missing Children With HIV: Index-Linked Testing In Clinics & Communities.
Key past events from 2018
STAR Symposium 30th November 2018 
In the context World AIDS Day, the STAR alliance held a public symposium at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, discussing developments of HIV self-testing in the context of the STAR initiative with an international panel of researchers and public policymakers.
Watch the video here
Key past events from 2017
In addition to regular meetings of STAR’s partners and researchers, Qualitative Research Network, Economics Network and Quantitative and Epidemiology Network, the following events have been held.
STAR at AIDS 2108
The STAR Initiative held a satellite session on Monday 23rd July from 14:45 to 16:45, on “Taking HIV Self-Testing to Scale in Southern Africa”. This event was hosted by Unitaid, Population Services International and the World Health Organization.
STAR at ICASA 2017
STAR held a satellite session, “Translating HIV Self-Testing Innovation Into National Policy and Scale-Up”, on 7th December. The session reviewed WHO guidance and new evidence emerging from the STAR Initiative. Research updates and case studies from four African countries explored how HIV self-testing (HIVST) evidence has been effectively translated into policy and the integration of HIVST into national HIV testing programmes.
“In Our Hands” film screening
(c) Lovemore Kukadah
In Our Hands is a community-led documentary funded by Wellcome Trust. It is a collaboration between Global Health Film initiative, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Research Programme (MLW) and WHO, and produced by Millie Harvey. Villagers in rural Malawi were empowered to tell their stories of HIV self-testing, using participatory film-making. This resulted in a powerful public engagement film (see poster and synopsis), which was shown in eight different locations on and around World AIDS Day 2017: Geneva (Switzerland, by WHO and Le Groupe Side Geneve), Neno, Machinga and Blantyre (Malawi, by MLW), Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire, for ICASA) and London (by LSHTM – see our photo gallery – and also as part of Global Health Film Festival).
A short version of the film is available here.
STAR at IAS 2017
UNITAID, PSI, WHO and LSHTM hosted a satellite session at IAS to share key findings from phase 1 of the STAR project and plans for phase 2, on Sunday 23rd July from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.
For a summary of all HIV self-testing sessions and presentations see the IAS HIV Self-Testing Roadmap produced by STAR.
29 – 30 March 2017: HIV Self-Testing Workshop, Nairobi
STAR hosted at the Boma Hotel an HIVST workshop, the purpose of which was to bring together key stakeholders, to catalyse and inform new programming and evidence-based implementation and scale-up as well as to disseminate the latest WHO HIVST guidance in Africa. The workshop focused on sharing the latest evidence and lessons learned on HIVST and skills building among key leaders from ministries of health, civil society, regulators and implementers who are working towards introducing and scaling-up HIVST.
The HIVST Workshop agenda can be downloaded by clicking here and presentations are available below:
Introduction (Dr Karin Hatzold)
Keynote address (Dr Nduku Kilonzo)
Panel 1 – Getting started at national level: Strategy, planning and oversight (Dr Rachel Baggaley; Dr Lot Nyirenda)
Panel 2 – Optimising accuracy of HIV self-tests (Mr Moses Kumwenda; Dr Euphemia Sibanda; Dr Alwyn Mwinga; Dr Elliot Cowan)
Panel 3 – HIVST distribution models, service delivery and linkage (Mr Richard Chilongosi; Ms Miriam Mutseta; Ms Mutinta Nalumbaba; Mr Mohammad Majam)
Panel 4 – Self-testing scale up and health systems: Integrating HIVST distribution into existing community health platforms and public sector HTS services (Mr Matt Greenall; Prof Kawango Agot; Dr Wanjiru Mukoma; Ms Sharmin Sharif)
Panel 5 – Moving HIVST from research to policy and practice: A policy maker’s perspective (Questions for policy makers)
Panel 6 – Research methods for scale-up (Dr Melissa Neuman; Dr Bernadette Henson; Dr Fern Terris-Prestholt)
