ETHIOPIA: VCT attendance on the increase

More than 200,000 people made use of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) services in Ethiopia during the past fiscal year, according to Dereje Seyoum, acting head of the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office in the capital, Addis Ababa.

More than 21,000 of those tested were found to be HIV-positive. In an interview with Ethiopia's Daily Monitor on Monday, he said the number of people accessing VCT rose every year, and attributed this to the wide range of advertisement and educational campaigns throughout country.

"The number of VCT centres has been increased to 200 from 147 in 2005. Around 28,000 mothers took prevention of mother-to-child transmission services and over 12,000 AIDS patients have started antiretroviral treatment," he said.

An estimated 1.7 million Ethiopians live with the virus, more than one million of them women or children under the age of 15.

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

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