Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS Union calls on groups to provide post-testing services

The Zimbabwe HIV and AIDS Activist Union recently called on organizations involved in the fight against the disease to stop offering HIV tests if they cannot provide post-testing services, the Herald/AllAfrica.com reports.

ZHAAU President Bernard Nyathi last week during the launch of a treatment program in the city of Bulawayo said that services, such as CD4+ T cell counting, are necessary following HIV tests.

"When a person tests positive, the next thing needed is treatment," he said, adding that groups that provide testing "should see to it that the people they have tested receive enough treatment. Testing without treatment is a death sentence."

According to the Herald/AllAfrica.com, some residents of Bulawayo said that there is a lack of treatment services in the city.

All of the CD4+ count machines in the city's governmental hospitals are not functioning, and people continue to receive HIV tests at the hospitals, the Herald/AllAfrica.com reports.

Nyathi said that all testing facilities should ensure that they have working CD4+ count machines so that they can provide testing and treatment (Herald/AllAfrica.com, 4/21).