HIV Prevalence in Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centers Compared With National HIV Serosurvey Data in Uganda

• DOI: 10.1097/qai.0b013e31818455b8
• Publication Date: 2008-09-26T12:31:12Z
• Authors: Fulgentius Baryarama; Rebecca E Bunnell; Livia Montana; Wolfgang Hladik; Alex Opio; Joshua Musinguzi; Wilford Kirungi; Laban Waswa-Bright; Jonathan H Mermin
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Rural Population; Adolescent; Urban Population; 1. No poverty; HIV Infections; Middle Aged; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Seroepidemiologic Studies; 11. Sustainability; Humans; Female; Uganda; 10. No inequality

Objectives: To compare HIV prevalence from routine voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) data with a population-based serosurvey in Uganda to assess the utility of VCT as supplemental source for surveillance. Methods: We analyzed 75,640 unique clients aged 15-59 years collected August 2004 January 2005 at 160 sites. excluded who reported illness reason testing. During same time period, 18,525 adults were tested HIV/AIDS Sero-Behavioral Survey (UHSBS). compared UHSBS age-standardized prevalence, overall among stand-alone facility-based Results: urban areas was similar [UHSBS: 9.7%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 8.6 10.7; VCT: 10.1%, CI 9.8 10.5] both men (UHSBS: 6.3%, 4.9 7.6; 7.1, 6.6 7.5) women 12.2%, 10.6 13.7; 12.9%, 12.3 13.4). Urban (9.7%, 10.7), sites (10.3% 10.8), health facility settings (10.0%, 9.5 10.4) similar. However, rural where coverage is much lower than (10% versus 31%), higher (8.2%, 7.9% 8.4%) participants (5.2%, 4.8% 5.5%). This resulted all (8.8%, 8.7 9.1) survey (5.9%, 5.6 6.2). Conclusions: After excluding give testing, may be used without further adjustment monitor epidemic Ugandans using either or monitoring not appropriate until uptake significantly improved an factor applied.