NAIROBI, 24 March 2010 (PlusNews) – The Kenyan government is using national tuberculosis screening programmes to persuade married couples – at high risk of HIV, according to research – to get tested for the virus. home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
About half of all Kenyan TB patients are co-infected with HIV, so HIV testing has become routine in TB clinics, with 83 percent of TB patients also screened for HIV. home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
“We have encouraged health facilities to not only test TB patients for HIV but also to reach out to their partners to bring them along for counselling and testing for HIV together,” Joseph Sitienei, the head of leprosy, TB and lung disease at the Ministry of Health, told IRIN/PlusNews. “The uptake of TB screening across the country has been impressive; it provides the best avenue to encourage partners to test together for HIV.” home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
According to the latest Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey, 10 percent of married couples have at least one HIV-infected person, but just 22 percent of couples know the HIV status of their sexual partners. An estimated 44 percent of new HIV infections in Kenya occur among married or cohabiting couples; HIV discordance is also a problem, with 6 percent of couples – or 344,000 – having at least one HIV-positive partner. home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
In many African countries where multiple concurrent partnerships are blamed for high HIV incidence, couples counselling is now being recommended. Experts suggest reaching couples through partner testing in home- and facility-based treatment and care programmes, the integration of partner testing into provider-initiated testing and counselling and prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes, as well as door-to-door testing and bio-medical interventions such as medical male circumcision. home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
“[Couples counselling and testing] does not only help them know their status but it provides an opportunity to identify discordant couples and then helping them to know better how to manage themselves,” said Andrew Suleh, medical superintendent of Mbagathi District Hospital, one of the model sites for TB diagnosis/screening and couples counselling and testing in the capital, Nairobi. “Safe sex and reducing risky sexual behaviour is heavily emphasized… those who test positive are made to appreciate the need for positive living.” home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit