Home to home HIV testing at Ile Perseverance today |04 September 2015

Following the success of the HIV test and treat campaign at Roche Caïman from March to May this year, the social, health and education commission of the Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (Ceps) is now shifting its campaign to Ile Perseverance today.

The testing will start at 11am and continue up to 3pm at Perseverance 2.

A tent is being setup as the central point for the project but will also be the place whereby residents will receive their test results.

The campaign at Perseverance aims to raise awareness of HIV testing as well as to have a majority of residents of both Perseverance 1 and 2 between the ages of 15 to 65 years to be tested, know their status and get those who are tested positive on treatment.

Home to home testing will be done in both Perseverance 1 and 2 throughout the month of September, every Saturday from 11am to 3pm.

ASFF and Haso, two member organisations of the commission, are teaming up once again to provide home to home testing to the Ile Perseverance community.

The campaign at Roche Caïman was a pilot project from March to May 2015 and a total of 183 residents were tested.

On December 1, International Aids Day 2014, a National Test and Treat Campaign was officially launched in Seychelles by  the National Aids Council and the Ministry of Health whereby the civil society pledged to support such campaign aiming at achieving the 90-90-90 targets of the global “Getting to Zero” HIV/Aids Campaign by UNAids. The 90-90-90 targets set by UNAids indicates that by 2020:

• 90% of all people living with HIV will know their status;

• 90% of all people diagnosed with HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy;

• 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.

The epidemiological report 2014 from the Ministry of Health indicates that the cumulative HIV cases from 1987 to 2014 is 667. However it is to be noted that from January to June 2015 a total of 41 new cases of HIV have been reported and nine people have developed Aids while seven people have died of Aids.

The test and treat campaign of the social, health and education commission of Ceps, which will run for a period of five years ending 2020, intends to target most if not all the districts of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue.