Methodology

711 people (49% women and 51% men) were interviewed on June 20, 2009 at 35 VCT sites distributed among the communes in proportion to the size of the population in each commune and selected at random. 70 health care providers were also interviewed per site. Two types of questionnaire were used to collect the survey data: one for the people being tested and the other for the health care providers.

Results Obtained

62% of respondents had heard of the Testing Day through the communication campaign; 64% were being tested for the first time; 84% made decisions after being tested to protect themselves. 91% expressed satisfaction with the services offered at the testing sites. Reasons given for their satisfaction included a good reception and advice about AIDS (55% of respondents); rapid service, the test result being given on the spot, and quality of service and organization (30%); and the relief at finding out that they were HIV negative (9%). However, only 37% of the VCT counselors said that they were satisfied with the services, mainly due to insufficient staffing and organizational problems during the Testing Day.

Conclusion

The National HIV Testing Day succeeded as a pilot operation in that it surpassed by a wide margin the initial objective (12,583 people tested compared to 10,000 expected). A key finding of this survey was that the main barrier keeping the public from getting tested was not fear of the result but lack of information about the test and the location of VCT sites.