Increased treatment through mandatory AIDS testing

ZAMBIA: Increased treatment through mandatory AIDS testing

JOHANNESBURG, 19 May 2004 (PLUSNEWS) - Zambia's National AIDS Council (NAC) aims to place at least 100,000 people on anti-AIDS treatment by 2005, and has called for mandatory HIV/AIDS testing in hospitals and health centres to reach this target.

NAC acting director general Rosemary Musonda told a parliamentary committee on health earlier this week that the current approach of referring people to voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) was inappropriate.

A local newspaper, The Times of Zambia, quoted Musonda as saying: "How can somebody who is ill volunteer to go for HIV testing? The approach is all wrong, and that is why we are struggling to scale up to even 10,000 people by the end of the year."

Research shows that unless the number of people going for VCT increases significantly, the country will only manage to put 15,000 per year people on treatment.

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