| |
Back to Index
ZIMBABWE:
Few rural dwellers visit VCT centres
IRIN News
October 20, 2004
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43771
HARARE - Few rural
Zimbabweans are using the Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) centres,
according to the latest Zimbabwe Human Development Report.
The US-based NGO, Pact, recorded only 50 to 108 visitors a month at two
of its VCT centres located at the Regina Coelli Mission in Manicaland
province and the St Theresa's Mission in Masvingo province.
"To go for testing takes courage - a person's perception of their risk
to exposure is what drives them. If we get 100 in one month, that's great,"
Choice Makufa, director of Pact told IRIN.
Pact's VCT centres are located at mission hospitals because "faith-based
organisations reach out to the most vulnerable people, who feel comfortable
with them," said Mafuka. To attract more visitors to the centre, the NGO
also offers Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPCT) treatment,
access to home-based care, treatment of opportunistic infections and links
to services such as birth registration and writing a will.
The Zimbabwe Association of Church Hospitals uses a similar approach at
its 10 rural centres, as does the government at its rural district hospitals.
But getting people interested in the programme requires a great deal of
community mobilisation by trained volunteers, Makufa explained. Emedie
Gunduza, an advocacy officer of the Women and AIDS Support Network, said
at some of the mobile PPCT points outside the capital, Harare, people
came forward in large numbers if food baskets were on offer but, generally,
were not keen on testing "for the sake of it".
VCT uptake in the urban areas was more impressive. Non-governmental Organisation
Population Services International (PSI), which runs 20 VCTs or New Start
Centres located mostly in the towns, showed that their larger centres
attracted 2,000 to 3,600 visitors per month, while smaller centres attracted
100 to 800.
Karin Hartzold, PSI's HIV/AIDS advisor, said advertising, promotions and
sponsorship of a popular television show centred on testing and living
positively with the virus had helped to popularise the VCT programme.
However, only 32 percent of the population lives in urban areas, where
people are better informed about HIV issues. The Human Development Report
of 2003 said the border, mining and commercial farming areas, where prevalence
was known to be highest, remained neglected.
NGOs working in the field of HIV/AIDS believe Zimbabwe's fledgling antiretroviral
(ARV) rollout programme could increase VCT uptake considerably if the
centres were made an entry point for access, and if the availability of
treatment was speeded up. Currently, free ARVs are available only to the
very sick at a few urban government hospitals.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
