Vct In Africa

Invitation to test for HIV ups test rate among male partners of pregnant women ...

Providing pregnant women with a written invitation to test for HIV for their male sexual partners significantly increased the numbers of males attending HIV voluntary counselling and testing at antenatal clinics (ANC) compared to those invited for pregnancy information sessions (PIS) in Khayelitsha, a township with a high HIV prevalence, in Cape Town, South Africa according to Boshishi K. F. Mohlala and colleagues in a randomised controlled trial published in the advance online edition of AIDS .

Community sensitisation activities encouraging male participation were conducted and antiretroviral therapy was available.

As in a Kenyan study the proportion of self-reported intimate partner violence was small and did not differ between the two groups; for women: 4% (7) in the male sexual partner voluntary counselling and testing arm (MSP VCT) compared to 7% (10) in the male sexual partner pregnancy information session (MSP PIS), p=0.207; for men: 0.5% (1) and 3% (4) for the MSP VCT and MSP PIS, respectively, p=0.167.

The authors suggest these numbers may be due to under-reporting.

An estimated 2.1 million children under the age of 15 are living with HIV; the majority of whom were infected perinatally.

Preventing the sexual and perinatal transmission of HIV during pregnancy needs communication and cooperation between partners, note the authors.

In many prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programmes men and their role, they add, isignored.

Yet, in many sub-Saharan communities men are the primary decision-makers regarding health care. For expectant couples this can include the mode of delivery as well as infant feeding.

Couples counselling is considered an effective strategy to improve the uptake of PMTCT interventions and minimise adverse outcomes associated with disclosure. However, few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of engaging male partners in PMTCT programmes in areas of high prevalence.

So in a randomised controlled trial the authors chose to compare a pregnant woman’s acceptance of a written invitation for VCT or PIS for their male sexual partners and the consequent effect on the uptake of VCT.

From November 2006 to December 2007 pregnant women attending the Site B Midwife and Obstetrician Unit in Khayelitsha for their ANC booking visit were consecutively screened for the study. The clinic was chosen because it had facilities for interviewing men and provided ART.

PlusNews Global | SOUTH AFRICA: Unpaid VCT counsellors threaten to ...

Johannesburg, 6 August 2010 (PlusNews) - After months of non-payment, lay counsellors vital to government's ambitious target of testing 15 million South Africans for HIV by April 2011, are threatening to walk out of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) clinics.

Lay counsellors in at least two of South Africa's nine provinces - Eastern Cape and Gauteng - said they had gone for as long as five months without receiving their government stipends for providing pre- and post-test counselling as part of the national testing drive.

"Even a gardener knows that every month [his employer] will pay him," said Martha Busana, a counsellor in Johannesburg. "We are going to picket until we get our money."

Counsellors in Gauteng also said they were required to work longer hours without additional pay, and asked to sign temporary contracts with local NGOs, whom they claim are mismanaging the payment of their stipends.

Counsellors from eastern and western Johannesburg - known as the East and West Rand - and its largest township, Soweto, plan to march to the capital, Pretoria, on 19 August to deliver a list of demands to the national health department.

Lucky Mokone, who has been a VCT counsellor for 10 years and is one of the march organizers, said they would demand back-pay and permanent employment contracts with the Department of Health .

A dry season 

Government contracted NGOs to ad minister payment of counsellors' monthly US$200 stipends for their work at government clinics in order to meet the anticipated increased demand for testing following the April launch of the national VCT campaign.

Lorna Fisher, project manager at Persevere Until Something Happens (PUSH) , one such NGO based on the West Rand, told IRIN/PlusNews that her organization had become stuck in a cycle of delayed payments to counsellors since an initial transfer of funds from the Gauteng Department of Health and Social Development arrived three months late.

"When [the money] came in July I paid back the months I owed counsellors, but then I'm empty again," she told IRIN/PlusNews. "It is like a dry season for the counsellors because it is sort of like they get paid quarterly - it's a breach of contract.

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