Alere donates one million HIV tests to PSI

Alere has announced that it will be donating up to one million of its HIV rapid tests to support a public health campaign by PSI (Population Services International).

The global not-for-profit organisation is conducting an awareness initiative that will see Alere provide one HIV test for every Facebook "Like", Twitter follower or submitted piece of artwork received by PSI.

This initiative was launched on July 17th 2011 and has seen more than one thousand art pieces created thus far, with the overall aim being to create more optimism among HIV patients.

Alere also hopes to further support the work conducted by PSI, which provided more than 1.8 million people with HIV testing and counselling services in 26 countries last year.

Tom Lindsay, director of business development for Alere in Africa, said: "By connecting people worldwide through social media and improving access to HIV tests, Alere and PSI can demonstrate that a better life after one is found to be HIV-positive is indeed possible."

This comes after the company announced last month that it has completed the acquisition of Arriva Medical, a provider of diabetes testing supplies via home delivery.