The role for government health centers in provision of same-day voluntary HIV counseling. and testing in Kenya

Abstract

Objective: To explore the role of primary health centers in provision of voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) in Kenya. Design and Setting: Prospective service evaluation at 3 (1 urban and 2 rural) government health centers. Subjects: Consecutive adult clients. Main Outcome Measures: Uptake of services, user characteristics, quality of service. Results: Counseling services received 2315 new clients over 26 months. The last quarter averaged 101 clients per clinic. More than 80% of clients lived locally. Overall 93% opted to test, 91% receiving results, 82% on the same day. Most clients tested HIV negative (81%). Youth and men were well represented. Few couples (10%) attended. Seventeen percent of women were pregnant. Self-referral was common and illness was an uncommon reason for testing