Abstract:

Background: Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV is one of the strategies for HIV/AIDS prevention as well as a crucial entry point to CTC. There is very little information on what influences this services in Tanzania among school children. This study aimed at assessing the perceived benefits and barriers to voluntary HIV counseling and testing among secondary schools students in Magu district.

Methodology: This was cross sectional study conducted in January 2016 on ordinary level secondary school students in Magu district, Mwanza Tanzania. A total of 250 secondary school students were recruited from four different secondary schools. An anonymous questionnaire was used to assess and the collected data were then transferred to the SPSS version 17.0 computer program where analysis of the results was done.

Results: Of 250 students interviewed, 54.4% were males, 45.6 were females with the age group of 16-20 years (62.4%). 100% of the participants knew HIV, 99.2% have heard of HIV VCT but only 18% have ever tested for HIV out of whom only 68.9% tested within the past 12 months. Only 48% of all participants were willing to test for HIV. 52% of all respondents were not ready for testing main reasons being; -94.6% of them afraid to die early if they knew, 1.5% lack of confidentiality, 1.5% stigmatization, 1.5% think they are very young to get HIV and 0.8% think the service is very expensive.

Discussion: The role of VCT is to provide counseling services to individuals who wish to know their health status especially after the emergence of HIV/AIDS. In order to get expected results counselors are advised to follow two steps when conducting counseling exercise. The first step involves pre-test counseling where a person is educated on why counseling service are important, why testing for HIV/AIDS and also prepares him/her to receive the results. The second and equally important step in post counseling. This help client to accept their HIV test results.

Conclusion: This study has come to conclusion that there is relationship between knowledge and practice since 99.2% of the students have ever heard about voluntary HIV counseling and testing and 97.5% of the students know the importance of voluntary HIV counseling and testing, however only 48% were ready to test for HIV. This study has also shown that there is no relationship between perception and practice since 99.2% of the students had good perception about voluntary HIV counseling and testing, however only 48% were ready to test for HIV.

Recommendations: VCT services should be included both in primary and secondary school syllabus to increase awareness of personal susceptibility to HIV/AIDS and benefits of VCT benefits.