Monthly Themes

Testing & Counseling

Overview

Only about two dozen sites in the country offer voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV, most of them in Abidjan. Even where testing is available, most people with HIV haven’t been tested. One important reason is fear and stigma surrounding the test and the possibility of a positive result. Yet widely available – and widely used – counseling and testing is a critical component of HIV prevention and a crucial entry point for HIV care and treatment. While the answer to our little test is obvious, answers in Cote d’Ivoire’s fight against HIV/AIDS will involve coordinated, well-funded scale-up of VCT services that identify HIV-positive people and connect them and their families to health care, psychosocial support, and other services.

 

• Aggressive expansion of VCT services for the general public as well as high-risk populations (youth, sex workers, military, etc.) throughout Cote d’Ivoire
• VCT integrated into existing health services
• VCT offered through sustainable community-based centers operated in innovative partnership with local government and the private/civil sectors
• Mobile VCT units for hard-to-reach populations
• Improvement and monitoring of the quality of VCT services
• Linking of VCT with care and treatment services as well as identification and support of vulnerable families and children
• As part of education and behavior-change campaigns, promotion of VCT with an emphasis on eliminating stigma and fear
  

 

Working with the Ivorian government and other partners, PEPFAR in 2006 will:

• Fund VCT projects totaling $2.8 million (8% of its budget)
• Help quadruple the number of VCT sites from mid-2005 levels
• Expand VCT services to underserved populations in rural areas and in the North
• Introduce routine provider-initiated VCT services at health facilities, including all TB treatment sites nationwide
• Support testing of more than 100,000 people