TimeSwaziland, 9 April 2014

MBABANE – NERCHA has affirmed that door-to-door HIV testing is critical to the HIV and AIDS response. NERCHA is an acronym for the National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS.

This is contrary to recent newspaper reports that a door-to-door strategy forHIV testing is 'unworkable'.
NERCHA Head of Information and Communication Mandla Luphondvo said HIV testing and counselling is a critical entry point to prevention, treatment, care and support.

Luphondvo said the door-to-door approach to HIV testing was never an out-of-the-blue strategy. He said the strategy was conceptualised after observing that the uptake of HIV testing and counselling (HTC) was very low.

"To resolve the low testing levels, in 2010 NERCHA collaborated with the Ministry of Health, UNAIDS, ICAP and other agencies supporting a project to pilot a strategy of home-based HIV testing and counselling services," Luphondvo said.
He said two constituencies selected for the project were Motshane, which is a rural area, and Mbabane East, which is an urban setting.

Sensitised

The two pilot communities, Luphondvo said, were selected and sensitised on the initiative and counsellors received special training.
The pilot project took place between August 2010 and February 2011 and gave people the opportunity to test in the comfort of their own homes and assistance in linking to care and treatment services if necessary.

The pilot project sought to assess whether offering HIV testing and counselling services on a door-to-door basis would reduce barriers to testing and help reach people who typically do not or cannot access HIV testing and counselling services.
The Ministry of Health through the Swaziland National AIDS Programme (SNAP) led the project and Population Services International (PSI) provided support for field work and service delivery. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Health, standard operating procedures were developed.

According to Luphondvo, the home-based HIV testing and counselling team would leave the community clinic and arrive in a community to go door-to-door providing information on HIV and conducting the test itself.

"If household members were interested in participating, testing was offered to all adults aged 16 and older present in the home and to children aged 12 months to 15 years whose parent or guardian was available to consenting on their behalf," he said.

Additionally, he said initial group counselling was provided to family members and peers, followed by private pre-test, testing and post-test counselling for individuals and couples deciding to test. HIV infected individuals were referred to nearby health facilities for care and treatment services.

Support

Further, he said the assertion that there were no support systems in communities to warrant the promotion of door-to-door HIV testing is not true. "A lot of communities now have active and appropriately coordinated and trained HIV and AIDS support groups where support can be accessed," said Luphondvo.

He also highlighted that the national strategy on HIV and AIDS for the next five years also promotes an acceleration of HIV testing as an entry point to prevention, treatment, care and support. One of the options that will probably be considered is self-test kits for HIV.

All these calculated attempts are meant to ensure that people know their HIV status; are enrolled for treatment as necessary and are assisted to consistently use condoms, since they would now know their HIV status.

BY SITHEMBILE HLATSHWAYO

Source: TimeSwaziland