World Health Organization Publication : Year 2003 ; Issue 9241590904: Increasing Access to HIV Testing and Counseling

By Susan Timberlake

Book Id: WPLBN0000178299
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.3 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	World Health Organization Publication : Year 2003 ; Issue 9241590904: Increasing Access to HIV Testing and Counseling
Author:	Susan Timberlake
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Health., Public health, Wellness programs
Collections:	Medical Library Collection, World Health Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	World Health Organization


Citation APA MLA Chicago Timberlake, B. S. (n.d.). World Health Organization Publication : Year 2003 ; Issue 9241590904. Retrieved from http://www.self.gutenberg.org/

Description
Medical Reference Publication

Excerpt
The changing face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic has resulted in new opportunities, as well as new imperatives, to increase access to HIV testing and counselling and to knowledge of HIV status. Increased access to care and treatment, and decreased stigma and discrimination in many settings present important new opportunities associated with taking an HIV test. The fact that more and more of those infected with HIV need care and treatment based on knowledge of HIV status indicates new imperatives. HIV testing and counselling services must keep pace with the new opportunities if the increasing benefits of knowing your HIV status are to be accessed (see Box One). New approaches to HIV testing and counselling must now be implemented in more settings, and on a much larger scale than has so far been the case. WHO is advocating that health-care workers should offer testing and counselling to all those who might benefit from knowing their HIV status, and then benefit from advances in the prevention of HIV infection and treatment of HIV-related diseases. As such benefits increase, there is an onus on national governments to provide good-quality testing and counselling services. The time has now come to implement HIV testing and counselling more widely using existing health-care settings, moving beyond the model of provision that relies entirely upon concerned individuals seeking out help for themselves to permit broader access for all. In this new approach, such services will become a routine part of health care, for example during attendance at antenatal clinics, or at diagnosis and treatment centres for tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections.

Table of Contents
Contents Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Description of the consultation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The current context and its relevance to HIV testing and counselling . 9 Challenges to increasing access to HIV testing and counselling . . . . . . . 12 Guiding principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Models of service delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Diagnostic HIV testing and counselling in clinical care settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Prevention of HIV infection in mothers and infants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 HIV testing and counselling in preventing HIV infection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Supportive environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Linking HIV testing and counselling to treatment, care and support . . . . . . . . 21 Community mobilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Policy and legal framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Country experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Conclusions and next steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Annex 1. List of participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Annex 2. Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29