Scaling up HIV testing and counselling services in India

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum members

Scaling up HIV testing and counselling services in India

From 6 to 8 June, Alliance India held a national workshop on Scaling Up HIV

Testing and Counselling in India: Perspectives in Policy and Programmes in New

Delhi. The three-day workshop was followed by a

half-day policy meeting on 9 June 2005 where draft policy recommendations and

related strategies were discussed with key stakeholders. The report of the

policy meeting will be available in August/September 2005 and will serve as an

important tool to inform the design and roll-out of the third phase of the

Government of India’s National AIDS Control Programme and the scaling up of HIV

testing and counselling services in India.

The workshop

24 participants from five states with a background in policy, programme

implementation and direct service delivery of HIV testing and counselling

services participated in the workshop. The key objectives were to:

advance understanding about scaling up HIV testing and counselling as the

gateway to HIV prevention, care, treatment, support and impact mitigation review

policy and practice for scaling up HIV testing and counselling, and develop

policy recommendations.

The policy meeting Participants included representatives from the

National AIDS Control Organisation, the UK Department for International

Development, the Swedish International Development Agency, the European

Commission, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization.

Key policy recommendations proposed included:

Develop anti-discrimination laws and policies to promote, protect and fulfil the

rights of people living with, and affected by, HIV/AIDS, including a plan for

the role of relevant legal and policy

education.

Regulate all private, public and civil society providers of HIV testing and

counselling through a system of accreditation as an important means of assuring

quality.

HIV testing and counselling should be offered as a standard practice in

tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infection, family planning and

reproductive and child health services.

Mobile HIV testing and counselling services should be set up to address gaps in

service delivery. This should be done through public-private partnerships.

Review and standardise current HIV counselling training to include broader

health issues, substance use, sexual diversity, gender, discordant couples,

disclosure, and working with illiterate populations and children.

Involve people living with HIV/AIDS and other key populations as peer

counsellors in the delivery of quality HIV testing and counselling services.

De-medicalise the current approach to HIV testing and counselling and include

community mobilisation as an important programmatic component of HIV testing and

counselling services. This involves building on, and mobilising, existing

structures as a part of community mobilisation for HIV testing and counselling.

Source: International HIV/AIDS Alliance

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Greetings from: Phi Huynhdo