ZIMBABWE: Mandatory HIV testing given a miss

Zimbabwe on Tuesday rejected a call by NGOs to make HIV testing compulsory, saying it constituted a violation of human rights.

The deputy minister of health and child welfare, Edwin Muguti, said every Zimbabwean had the right to individually decide on their health.

"People should be left to make informed decisions and not to be forced to expose their status against their will," he told the local Herald newspaper.

Muguti was confident that voluntary counselling and testing were already yielding the desired results.

Zimbabwe recently became the first Southern African nation to report a drop in prevalence from 24.6 percent in 2003 to 20.1 percent in 2005.

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