Accu-Chek Instant Test Strips: 50 Tests for the Instant Meter
Accu-Chek Instant test strips give you fifty readings for the Accu-Chek Instant meter, so you can keep testing on the schedule our doctor has set you without running out halfway through the month. Each strip takes a very small drop of blood on its wide yellow edge and the meter reads it in under four seconds, which is the part that makes testing several times a day bearable rather than a chore.
These fit the Accu-Chek Instant meter and that meter only. Test strips are not a general consumable: each one is made for a particular meter, and a strip from another model, even another Accu-Chek model, is either rejected outright or gives a number with nothing behind it. So before you order, please read the name off the front of your own meter and tell our pharmacist, and we will make sure the box matches the machine.
What Fifty Strips Cost You a Month
The meter is bought once and the strips are bought forever, so the strips are where the real cost of testing sits. It is worth doing the arithmetic before you settle on a system rather than after.
Testing twice a day uses about sixty strips a month, so a pack of fifty is roughly three and a half weeks. Four times a day, as some people on insulin need, is closer to a pack every other week. Tell our pharmacist how often our doctor has asked you to test and we will set a standing monthly delivery at the right quantity, in plain outer packaging with a delivery note that names nothing. Running out is the thing that actually interrupts people’s testing, and it tends to happen quietly on a Sunday.
Getting a Reading You Can Trust
Most unreliable home readings come from the technique rather than the strip. Four habits cover almost all of it.
Wash your hands with soap and warm water and dry them properly first, because sugar from fruit, juice or food left on a finger will read far higher than your blood. Use a fresh lancet every single time and prick the side of the fingertip rather than the pad, which hurts less and heals better, moving round your fingers rather than using the same spot. Let the drop form on its own and resist squeezing or milking the finger, since that pushes tissue fluid into the sample and gives a reading lower than the truth. Then touch the yellow edge of the strip to the drop and hold it there until the meter beeps.
Looking After the Strips
Strips are the delicate part of the system, and in Nairobi damp and Mombasa humidity they are easier to spoil than most people expect.
Keep them in their own vial with the cap closed tight, and close it straight after taking one out rather than leaving it open while you test. Keep the vial out of direct sun, out of the bathroom and out of a car’s glovebox, and at room temperature rather than in the fridge. Handle a strip by its end and keep your fingers off the yellow application area. Use each strip once, check the expiry date on the vial before you start a new one, and set aside any strip that looks discoloured or has been out of the vial for a while. A strip that has been damp will still give you a number, and that is exactly the problem.
What to Do With the Numbers
Write every reading down with the date, the time and whether it was before or after food, or let the meter’s memory do it and bring the meter in. A single reading says very little; a fortnight of them shows a pattern, and the pattern is what our doctor treats.
Please bring the readings to us rather than adjusting your own insulin or tablets. Doses are changed on a pattern over weeks, and a dose altered because of one number is how people end up in trouble in both directions. Our doctor will also set your own target range with you, because the right targets differ between people, and they are different again in pregnancy, in older age and for somebody on insulin.
When to Act, and When to Get Help the Same Day
A reading below 4.0 mmol/L needs treating straight away, whatever else you are doing. Take fifteen to twenty grams of fast-acting sugar, which is three or four glucose tablets, half a glass of ordinary soda or fruit juice, or three teaspoons of sugar in water, then wait fifteen minutes and test again. Repeat if it is still low, and once you are back above four, eat something more substantial so it holds.
Where somebody with low blood sugar is confused, fitting or is hard to wake, treat it as an emergency and get help immediately, and please put nothing in the mouth of a person who is unconscious. At the other end, a very high reading alongside vomiting, stomach pain, deep rapid breathing, breath that smells sweet or of acetone, or unusual drowsiness needs hospital the same day rather than another test, because that combination can mean the blood is turning acidic. Please also come and see us for frequent lows, lows you no longer feel coming, or readings that stay high for several days.
What We Can Honestly Tell You
If you have the Accu-Chek Instant meter, these are the strips for it and the pack size suits most testing schedules. Bring your meter in with you the first time and our pharmacist will run a test alongside you, check your technique and make sure the meter and strips are talking to each other properly.
Please also ask us about lancets at the same time, because a strip is only half the test and a reused lancet is blunt, painful and worth avoiding. If you are buying the meter as well, it is our Accu-Chek Instant meter that these belong with. And where you are choosing a system from the start and the cost per test matters, ask about the On Call Plus meter, whose strips work out considerably cheaper over a year.
Is This Pack of Test Strips Right for You?
Please talk to our pharmacist or our doctor before you buy if any of these apply.
- You are unsure which meter you have. Read the name off the front of it, or bring it in. Strips fit one meter model only.
- You have an Accu-Chek Active meter. That is a different machine and it takes different strips. Please let us match them for you.
- Readings that look wrong, or much higher than you expected. Often unwashed hands or a damp strip. Bring the meter and the vial in and we will test alongside you.
- A reading below 4.0 mmol/L. Treat it straight away with fast-acting sugar, retest in fifteen minutes, and tell us if it keeps happening.
- Someone with low blood sugar who is confused, fitting or is hard to wake. Emergency, and nothing by mouth.
- A very high reading with vomiting, stomach pain, deep rapid breathing, sweet-smelling breath or drowsiness. Hospital the same day.
Where to Buy Accu-Chek Instant test strips in Kenya
Order online and we deliver countrywide, or collect from our pharmacy at Kahawa Sukari Shopping Center, Nairobi. We send orders to Nairobi and every neighbourhood around it — the CBD, Westlands, Parklands, Gigiri, Muthaiga, Runda, Rosslyn, Kitisuru, Lower Kabete, Lavington, Kileleshwa, Kilimani, Karen, Langata, South B, South C, Eastleigh, Buruburu, Donholm, Embakasi, Ngong Road, Kasarani, Roysambu, Zimmerman, Githurai, Ruaka, Banana Hill, Two Rivers, Village Market and Pride Lands — and across Kiambu, Thika, Juja, Ruiru, Kikuyu, Limuru and Ngong.
Beyond the capital we deliver to Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, Nyeri, Machakos, Athi River, Kitengela, Kajiado, Naivasha, Narok, Kericho, Bomet, Kisii, Migori, Homa Bay, Siaya, Bungoma, Busia, Kakamega, Vihiga, Webuye, Kitale, Nandi Hills, Iten, Kapenguria, Embu, Meru, Chuka, Kerugoya, Murang’a, Othaya, Nyahururu, Nanyuki, Maralal, Isiolo, Marsabit, Moyale, Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Lodwar, Kitui, Mwingi, Makueni, Emali, Kibwezi, Voi, Taveta, Wundanyi, Mariakani, Diani, Ukunda, Kilifi, Watamu, Malindi, Lamu and Hola. Everything in this category travels in plain outer packaging with nothing on the outside to say what is inside, and the delivery note carries our name and no product description. At one strip per test a pack covers a known length of time, so tell us how many months you want covered and we will work out the quantity with you before you order.
Across Africa, ask us before you order. We have sent orders to Uganda, Tanzania, Somaliland and as far as Malawi, and we will quote for Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and the rest of the continent. Tell us the destination and we will confirm any import paperwork before the parcel leaves us.
Living abroad? Order from wherever you are and we deliver to your family here in Kenya. Kenyans in the UK, the United States, Canada, South Africa and the Gulf order from us regularly for parents and relatives at home. Blood glucose test strips is needed every day rather than occasionally, so running out is the thing to plan against. Tell us who it is for, the size and how many months you want covered, and we will set up a standing monthly delivery so nobody is ever caught short.
Why Buy Your Accu-Chek Instant test strips from HealthAlone Kenya?
HealthAlone is a pharmacist-led health ecosystem licensed by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, and our stock is original, sealed and correctly stored. Kahawa Sukari is a real counter with real pharmacists behind it.
Our pharmacists will match the strips to your own meter, set the monthly quantity against how often our doctor has asked you to test, and run a test alongside you to check your technique. Our doctor is here too if you would rather have the whole question looked at properly.
It is one more step in our vision: building Africa’s most trusted health ecosystem, accessible to everyone, everywhere.
Your Questions About Accu-Chek Instant Test Strips, Answered
Which meter do these strips fit?
The Accu-Chek Instant meter, and that meter only. Read the name off the front of yours, or bring it in and we will match the box to the machine.
Will they work in an Accu-Chek Active meter?
No. The Active is a different machine with different strips, despite the shared brand name. Please let our pharmacist match them for you.
How many are in a pack?
Fifty. Testing twice a day that is about three and a half weeks; four times a day it is closer to a fortnight.
How much blood does a strip need?
A very small drop, applied to the wide yellow edge, with a result in under four seconds.
Why do my hands have to be washed first?
Sugar from fruit, juice or food on a finger reads far higher than your blood. Soap and warm water, then dried properly.
Should I squeeze my finger to get enough blood?
Let the drop form on its own. Squeezing pushes tissue fluid into the sample and gives a reading lower than the truth.
Where on the finger should I prick?
The side of the fingertip rather than the pad. It hurts less and heals better, and move round your fingers rather than using one spot.
Can a strip be used twice?
Each strip is used once. The same goes for lancets, which should be fresh every time.
How should the strips be stored?
In their own vial with the cap closed tight, at room temperature, out of direct sun and away from damp. Not in the fridge, and not in a car.
Can I use strips past the date on the vial?
Please do not. Check the expiry before starting a new vial, and set aside any strip that looks discoloured.
My readings seem too high. What should I check?
Unwashed hands and a damp strip are the two commonest causes. Bring the meter and the vial in and we will run a test alongside you.
What should I do about a reading below 4.0 mmol/L?
Treat it at once with fifteen to twenty grams of fast-acting sugar, wait fifteen minutes and retest. Repeat if still low, then eat something more substantial.
When is a high reading an emergency?
With vomiting, stomach pain, deep rapid breathing, sweet-smelling breath or drowsiness. Hospital the same day rather than another test.
Where can I buy ACCU-CHECK Instant Glucose Test Strips 50s in Kenya, and what does it cost?
From HealthAlone, online for delivery countrywide or over the counter at Kahawa Sukari Shopping Center, Nairobi. The current price is shown above. We deliver across Nairobi — the CBD, Westlands, Parklands, Gigiri, Muthaiga, Runda, Kitisuru, Lavington, Kilimani, Karen, Langata, South B, South C, Eastleigh, Kasarani, Roysambu, Githurai, Ruaka and Banana Hill — and to Kiambu, Thika, Juja, Ruiru, Kikuyu, Limuru, Ngong, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, Nyeri, Machakos, Kitengela, Naivasha, Narok, Kericho, Kisii, Migori, Homa Bay, Bungoma, Busia, Kakamega, Kitale, Embu, Meru, Nanyuki, Nyahururu, Isiolo, Marsabit, Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Lodwar, Kitui, Makueni, Voi, Taveta, Mariakani, Diani, Ukunda, Kilifi, Watamu, Malindi and Lamu. Outside Kenya we have delivered to Uganda, Tanzania, Somaliland and Malawi, and we quote for Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and the rest of Africa on request. Tell us the name printed on the front of your meter, or bring the meter in, so we match the strips to the machine.
