Malawi Plans To Launch Pilot Project That Will Provide Individual Household HIV/AIDS Testing, Official Says

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 05 Oct 2007 - 12:00 PDT

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Malawi's National AIDS Commission in November or December is planning to launch a pilot project in Zomba, Malawi, that will provide HIV/AIDS testing to individual households, Bizwick Mwale, executive director of NAC, said on Friday, Malawi's Nation reports. According to Mwale, the initiative aims to resolve the inadequate access to HIV testing centers in most rural communities.

Mwale said that NAC "will be sending health officials to individual villages and probably even individual households and institutions." Mwale did not indicate how much NAC expected to spend on the project. The agency also has been determining how much money will be allocated to current HIV/AIDS testing sites, Mwale said (Nation, 10/1).

According to health officials, statistics indicate that 15% of the country's six million sexually active residents have received HIV tests and know their status. The statistics suggest that the majority of HIV-positive Malawians do not know their status. Official figures place the country's HIV prevalence at 14% (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/16).

NAC, as well as various stakeholders, met Monday through Wednesday for the joint Annual Review Conference of Malawi's response to HIV/AIDS for the period between June 2006 and July 2007. The goal of the conference is to examine the achievements made in the fight against HIV/AIDS and allow delegates to interact and learn from each other, according to Mwale (Xinhua News Agency, 10/2).

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