Frontiers Prevention Project boosts testing services in Ecuador
07 November 2005
The Frontiers Prevention Project (FPP) has been developing new voluntary counselling and testing services in FPP participating cities in Ecuador in response to challenges around testing that exist. The services, designed by Alliance linking organisation Corporación Kimirina’s technical team with help from the Alliance, are being implemented at Ecuadorian Red Cross facilities and have already led to some interesting programme developments.
At least 50% of HIV/AIDS cases currently go unregistered in Ecuador, according to recent epidemiological reports. Without adequate reporting, the scale of the epidemic remains uncertain. Government responses so far have been limited and international funds insufficient – not helped by the situation of underreporting.
Voluntary and routine access to testing services is a way to understand the real dimension of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and is also one of the most effective ways to implement prevention. People who know their status have more opportunities to access healthcare and modify their behaviour to reduce further transmission. But stigma, discrimination and myths, including within the healthcare system, often prevent people from finding out their status in Ecuador.
In response to this, Kimirina have been working to sensitise health staff, sharing information they have gathered about HIV/AIDS awareness and attitudes towards populations key to the epidemic. Work with Ecuadorian Red Cross staff has focused on the voluntary and counselling aspects of voluntary counselling and testing. At the same time, a number of people, mostly volunteers, have been trained as advisers. And voluntary counselling and testing service protocols have been developed which include medical attention to users, clinical procedures, counselling monitoring and statistics.
The process led to some interesting outcomes. Youth programmes working on prevention co-ordinated sensitisation and training for the community through video forums, workshops, and large-scale campaigns. The process also led to the development of institutional policies, such as the inclusion of HIV/AIDS-related work into Ecuadorian Red Cross’s policy, and the expression of a firm political will to open voluntary counselling and testing centres at all cantonal divisions of the Ecuadorian Red Cross, so that counselling can accompany diagnosis of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.
The resulting sensitisation generated by voluntary counselling and testing in the Red Cross and the quality of the service provided to its users, has led to pilot stage work on post-testing clubs for people with both positive and negative diagnoses, which are intended to be a transition to other support groups.
Kimirina has also begun to work with a partner, Cemoplaf, to support voluntary counselling and testing facilities alongside sexual and reproductive health clinics. The aim is to improve diagnosis among women of childbearing age, so that mother–infant transmission may be reduced.
