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‘Take Aids screening centres to rural areas’
By Dege Masoli, PST, Tanga, IPP Media
Thu, Nov 04, 2004
The government has been asked to establish HIV screening centres in rural areas. Village health workers from Tanga, Pangani and Muheza districts made the plea at the end of a four-day seminar in Tanga.
They said limiting the establishment of HIV screening centres to district headquarters denied the rural population “a very crucial” service.
Lack of testing centres in rural areas was partly to blame for the spread of HIV/Aids among the rural folks, most of who also held the view that they had been sidelined in the campaign against HIV/Aids, they said.
Central Ward Councillor Rukia Msabaha urged the participants to use the knowledge gained from the seminar in counselling residents in their respective areas.
She warned them against disclosing their clients’ secrets so as to win the confidence of other people and called on TAWG, a non-governmental organisation specialising in Aids education and counselling, to step up its campaign on Aids control measures in schools.
The seminar was organized by TAWG and was aimed at teaching health workers how to take care of Aids patients at home.
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