South Africa: Who goes to the public sector for Voluntary HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing?

From:: Department for International Development
Published: 12 September 2006

Country:: South Africa
Document Type:: Country Report
Theme:: Health
Authors:: Palmer, N., Mbatsha, S., Thiede, M.

Abstract

This is a study of how well public voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) programs for HIV/AIDS reach poor people in township areas of Cape Town, South Africa. The study covered three public clinics, where lay counselors from local nongovernmental organizations provided counseling. A clinic nurse was responsible for testing and notifying patients of the results. Waiting room interviews of 540 patients included questions about the patients’ possessions and housing conditions designed to assess economic status. This information was compared with comparable information for people in South Africa as a whole, and in South Africa’s urban areas, collected through a large-scale household Demographic and Health Survey.

Citation

Health, Nutrition and Population (HND) Discussion Paper. Reaching the Poor Program Paper No.6. Washington DC: The World Bank