HIV/AIDS News South Africa

Sudan: HIV rate is mostly guesswork

No sign advertises the availability of voluntary HIV counselling and testing (VCT) at the Family Planning Centre in Port Sudan, a busy transportation hub in Sudan's Red Sea State. It is one of only three sites in town offering these services, but the waiting room is deserted.

VCT only became available in Port Sudan in 2006 and, according to Ahmed Musa, local coordinator of the Sudanese National AIDS Control Programme (SNAP), it has been slow to catch on. Of the 181 people who were tested here in 2007, only 18 walked through the door on their own initiative; the rest were HIV "suspects" referred by their doctors, and more than half had positive test results.

Read the full article

Let's do Biz