A very positive day with negative results. Out of 82 people who did VCT only 7 were positive for HIV which is a very low percentage for South Africa.

Today with World AIDS Day ETC did VCT (volunteer counseling and testing) at a government department in Pretoria. Doug, Ben and another counselor counseled 39 of the 82 people who used the oral test to test for HIV. We would have seen more people but the ceremonies before the testing started late and ran over and we were only left with about 4 ½ hours to do as much counseling as possible. I didn’t counsel nor have to chance to sit in on a counseling session as I was charge with watching over the people waiting to be tested, keep the devices in a private place where only the counselors would know the results and make sure the counseling ran as smoothly as possible.
Out of the seven people who tested positive for HIV only one came to get their result and go through counseling. I am glad that out of 82 people who test only seven were positive as this is a much smaller percentage than the national average of around 30% yet I have a feeling that many who knew or thought they were positive didn’t test and since only one who tested and was found positive came to get their results it leads me to believe the others knew or were suspicious that they were positive. Ben, Linzi and another counselor or two will be going back and continue to share the results and counsel this coming week at this same department as well as testing new people who didn’t do the oral test with us today.
This is a brief blog as I am tired and need to rest to get up tomorrow to try and catch up on emails, prepare for a short three day trip to Cape Town, continue working on my plans for Mozambique and Kenya and write another entry or two before I leave.