Walmart and MISTR to offer free at-home HIV testing kits

A new partnership between PrEP telemedicine startup MISTR and Walmart aims to make at-home HIV testing more affordable and accessible.

Starting July 25, MISTR will provide at-home HIV testing kits in seven Walmart stores in the greater Atlanta area as part of a pilot program. Store locations include Atlanta, Stockbridge, Morrow, Decatur, and Ellenwood. Customers living in these areas can walk into one of the pilot program stores and pick up a kit from the pharmacy free of charge, according to a MISTR press release. Users take the kit home, follow instructions, and register as a user with MISTR to receive their results, along with any relevant treatment resources.

The move is the latest in MISTR’s efforts to expand its product line of sexual health telemedicine. In April of this year, the company rolled out access to Doxycycline Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (DoxyPEP), which has been shown to reduce the likelihood of transmission of syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea by about 60 percent when taken within 72 hours of exposure. More than 2.5 million cases of syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea were reported in 2022, with gay and bisexual men reporting exposure at higher rates.

“If someone's getting tested for HIV, then they're at risk for HIV and should be on PrEP,” MISTR founder Tristan Schukraft told The Advocate. “A lot of people outside of the gay community are unaware of what PrEP is and how it can protect them. With each of these kits, there will be information on PrEP, and when [users] get results back, they'll be encouraged to get on it.”

A report published last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the Atlanta metro area had the third-highest HIV infection rate in the nation in 2021, and 52 percent of all new infections in the U.S. that year happened in the South. Fulton and Dekalb counties also had the first- and second-highest rate of new infections in the country, with about 50 cases per 100,000 people.

Of the roughly 36,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. that year, 71 percent were among gay, bisexual, and other men who reported male-to-male sexual contact, 22 percent were among people who reported heterosexual contact, and the remaining 7 percent were among people who inject drugs, the report said. U.S. clinical trials for a twice-a-year HIV prevention injection of the antiretroviral drug lenacapavir began in June, according to the National Institutes of Health; lenacapavir has already been approved by the FDA for HIV treatment.

“I'm really proud of Walmart because they're taking this challenge on, and I'm excited about this because it’s outside the box,” Schukraft said. “A lot of people may not think of Walmart as very forward-thinking when it comes to HIV and whatnot, so I think it's great what they're doing, and we're really excited to partner.”

Since launching in 2018 at Palm Springs Pride, MISTR’s no-cost access to PrEP has attracted over 350,000 patients, as well as years of cash burn, since the health startup fronts the cost of the labs, according to the company. Schukraft says this deficit has since been closed by achieving critical mass, and that the main objective of the pilot program with Walmart is to prove consumer interest and increase awareness about free access to at-home HIV testing.

“If we ran out of test kits on the first day, we’d be really happy,” he said.