Uptake of provider initiated HIV counseling and testing (PICT) among out patient department (OPD) clients with possible clinical signs of HIV infection in Addis Ababa.

BACKGROUND: Developments have been seen in recent years in global efforts to address the AIDS epidemnic. HIV counseling and testing (VCT) is the key entry point to prevention, care, treatment and support services. To improve the slow uptake besides VCT different alternatives have been proposed, namely provider-initiated HIV counseling and testing (PICT).

OBJECTIVES: To assess uptake of provider initiated HIV counseling and testing among out patient department (OPD) clients with possible clinical signs of HIV infection and factors associated with it.

METHODS: Facility based cross sectional study was conducted on 423 OPD clients with possible clinical signs of HIV infection in 12 government health centers in Addis Ababa. Once the health facilities were selected randomly from each sub cities, study subjects who came to the health centers were interviewed consecutively.

RESULT: The pre-test and post-test acceptability rates among those who showed willingness to PICT, were 0.98 and 0.96 respectively where as the overall acceptability rate of all study participants was 0.67. Compared with age group 15-24, subjects 25-34 years old have higher rate of willingness (Adj.OR = 8.98, 95% CI = 1.2-66.5) and acceptability (Adj.OR = 6.4 CI = 1.2-33.6). On the other hand those who had "less" support for PITC were less likely to be willing (AOR = 0.03; CI = 0.002-0.43) and accept the test (AOR = 0.02; 95% CI = 0.02-0.3) than who supported it "extremely".

CONCLUSION: Though knowledge about PICT among the study subjects was not satisfactory the relatively high willingness and acceptability identified in this study is promising for wider application towards strengthened prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. We recommend that PICT needs to be implemented at all levels of health facilities in Ethiopia.