Abstract
Voluntary Counselling and Testing is one of the strategies to respond to the increasing number of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) new infections. The purpose of this study was to assess the current status of HIV Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) in Rundu urban and identify the barriers to fully effective service.The objectives of the study was to identify the barriers that prevents effective HIV Voluntary Counselling and testing services; asses its success and determine its status in urban, Namibia. A qualitative explorative and descriptive design was employed in this study where all health care and HIV/AIDS professionals including hospital nurses, employees and New Start VCT Centres, and representatives from relevant NGOs, Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), and the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS)providing Voluntary Counselling services in Rundu urban in Namibia were interviewed. In this study, in depth individual interview structured in accordance with interview guide was used. Content analysis method was employed to analyze the data. Themes that emerged from this study includes: Fear of a positive results (stigma that accompanies seropositivity) and lacks of perceived benefit to getting tested. In addition, financial barriers affecting the poorest populations in Rundu. To increase access and relevance of VCT services, it is recommended that the Ministry of Health and Social Services should develop more detailed counselling guidelines and increase the scope of counselling by addressing the inadequacies of current risk reduction. Despite these hopeful possibilities a number of barriers remains before VCT can be fully effective.
Highlights
HIV remains one of the biggest public health challenges globally and especially in Sub Saharan Africa and in Namibia
A qualitative explorative and descriptive design was employed in this study where all health care and HIV/AIDS professionals including hospital nurses, employees and New Start Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) Centres, and representatives from relevant NGOs, Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), and the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS)providing Voluntary Counselling services in Rundu urban in Namibia were interviewed
The UNAIDS (2014) fact sheet on Global Statistics indicate that to date 15 million people are accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART) by March 2015, 36.9 million people globally were living with HIV, 2 million people became newly infected with HIV and 1.2 million people died from AIDS related illness
Summary
HIV remains one of the biggest public health challenges globally and especially in Sub Saharan Africa and in Namibia. Sub- Saharan Africa has 25.8 million people living with HIV, of which women account for more than half the total number of people living with HIV (UNAIDS, 2014).It is estimated that 1.4 million new infections in 2014 and these new infections account for 60% of the global total of new infections. Namibia has achieved high treatment coverage of 86% using the CD4 count of 350 with 50% decreases in estimated new infections and number of AIDS related deaths (MoHSS, 2013). Following the first reported cases in 1986, data compiled by the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) show that AIDS became the leading cause of death in Namibia in 1996. Recent estimates indicate that 29% females and 18% males reported having gone for HIV testing within the past 12 months of the survey and knew their sero-status .Only 5% of those attending HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) did so as couples (MoHSS, 2013)
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