SOUTH AFRICA: KZN residents slow on HIV testing

JOHANNEBURG, 8 Mar 2005 (PLUSNEWS) - South Africans living in KwaZulu-Natal province's port city of Durban are less likely to get tested for HIV than the inhabitants of Cape Town or Johannesburg a new survey has found.

The survey of 892 households, commissioned by the New Start voluntary counselling and testing centre in the Durban area, found that 72 percent of respondents did not plan to be tested in the next 12 months, compared with 42 percent of Capetonians and 53 percent of Johannesburg residents.

New Start's Billy Scott told a local newspaper, Business Day, that women made up most of the large numbers of South Africans taking HIV tests at public health facilities, but added, "We don't know what the underlying reasons are."

South Africa currently has 3,369 facilities, but this is expected to rise to 5,000 by the end of March 2006.

[ENDS]