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HHS Secretary Visits HIV Testing Thompson was on a week-long trip to Africa that included stops in Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana and Cote d'Ivoire. He was working to strengthen partnerships and strategies to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which together claim 6 million lives each year. PSI is involved in the marketing and, in Mozambique, the management of the VCT centers visited by Thompson. The VCT centers use social marketing to make VCT services accessible and create demand for them. PSI began the social marketing of VCT services in neighboring Zimbabwe in 1999 and now works with VCT programs in 12 African countries. In Maputo, Mozambique, Thompson visited the Premeiro de Maio Primary Care Clinic, which also includes the Renascer (New Start) VCT center funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the local United States Agency for International Development (USAID) mission, and managed by PSI and the Mozambique Minister of Health Francisco Songane. This is one of the first health centers in the country to provide an integrated approach to HIV/AIDS by offering education, counseling and testing. In Gaborone, Botswana, Thompson visited the Tebelopele (New Start) VCT Center, one of 10 Tebelopele VCT centers in Botswana funded by the CDC and the Government of Botswana through the local USAID mission, built by the U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation and socially marketed by PSI. The center has seen 25,000 clients so far. Thompson gave the keynote address at a ground-breaking ceremony for another center in Gaborone at which he acknowledged the important role of VCT, and reinforced the U.S. commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS. "As much as you are our ally in fighting terrorism, we are your ally in the fight against HIV/AIDS," he said. Six more centers are scheduled to open by the end of 2002. An estimated 12.2% of the adult population in Mozambique and 36% in Botswana are infected with the AIDS virus and yet only a small portion of them have been tested. VCT encourages individuals to know their HIV status as a first step in HIV prevention. Trained counselors provide customized pre- and post-test counseling to each client. Research has demonstrated that VCT is an effective and cost efficient intervention that results in sustained behavior change, including increased condom use and partner reduction. Clients who test positive and negative experience the beneficial effects of knowing one's status: Counselors help HIV negative clients to practice safe behaviors to maintain their negative status, and they help HIV positive clients to protect themselves and others from HIV infection, and seek medical, social and psychological support. "There are an estimated 40 million people around the world living with HIV/AIDS, with more than 70 percent of these people in sub-Saharan Africa," Thompson said before his departure on this trip. "Millions more are affected by tuberculosis and malaria. The scourge of AIDS threatens to destroy economies, social systems and the very fabric of local communities. There is no question that as a country, the United States must engage with other nations and across all sectors to fight the most devastating public health pandemic of the modern age." Thompson's visit builds upon the Bush Administration's support of the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the president's March
22 announcement of a Compact for Development — a pledge to contribute
$5 billion over three years to fund initiatives for developing countries
to improve national economies and standards of living, including health
education and health care treatment and service programs. —David J. Olson, Senior Manager for Public Affairs, PSI/Washington
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