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Fighting AIDS on all fronts
Tedros Ghebrezigiabihier, 25 years old, has been waiting to learn his HIV status for a few minutes when the nurse, Nigisti Araya, comes in the room with his HIV test. Like Tedros, an average of 20 people are counseled and tested for AIDS every day at the Health Information Center in Keren, 100 km from Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea. “The busiest time for VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) in Eritrea, explains Nigisti, is after the harvests, just before January when most weddings take place. HIV testing is compulsory in Eritrea for those who are getting married.” Tedros, who was first tested when he was in the army, 2 years ago, has not found a bride but has decided to undergo VCT in the course of a general health check up, for his “peace of mind”. He gets what he came for: he is HIV negative.
Setting up free VCT centers in six of the country’s nine regions and scaling up existing counseling and testing activities are part of the aggressive strategy against HIV/AIDS put in place by Eritrea with an $8.1 million grant from the Global Fund. More than 100,000 people were tested in 2004 and 2005 in about 50 free-standing and facility based VCT sites supported with the Round 3 grant.
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