TY  - BOOK
AU  -      Sifa B. Mbelle
AU  -        Samuel Elias Kalluvya
AU  - Namanya Basinda 
TI  - Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Towards Voluntary HIV Counseling and Testing (VCT) among CUHAS Medical Students.  
PY  - 2023///
CY  - Mwanza, Tanzania: 
PB  - Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences [CUHAS – Bugando]
KW  -  
N2  - Abstract:

Introduction: An estimated 1.6 million people in Tanzania were living with HIV, and among them, about 1.3 million are aged 15 and older. Early detection of HIV infection leads to early linkage of HIV care and treatment with better clinical outcomes. Medical students as future medical doctors should be advocates for HIV screening. This study aimed to determine the knowledge, altitude and practice towards voluntary HIV counseling and testing among CUHAS medical students. 

Methodology: This was a cross sectional study that was conducted to assess knowledge, attitude and practice towards HIV voluntary counseling and testing among all medical students at Catholics University College of Health and Allied Science. Data were collected through questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted, the social demographic data, Knowledge, altitude and practice assessment toward voluntary HIV counseling and testing. Data were entered and analyzed by SPSS. And summarized into frequency as bar charts or pie charts in assessing the knowledge, attitude and practice towards voluntary HIV counseling and testing

Results: A total of 314 participants who met the inclusion criteria were included in this study. The mean age was 22 ± 2.7 years. Almost all participants (98.7%) knew about VCT. Source of information for majority of the participants was health personnel (67.5%) followed by Radio (11.5%) and Tv (9.6%). 98.4% knew the meaning of VCT. 94.9% were willing to take HIV testing.  Reason prompted participants to use VCT services was to get HIV//AIDS education followed by knowing HIV status and just being curious.

Conclusion: The knowledge, attitude and practice of voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) of HIV among medical students at CUHAS was high. Apart from this high level, efforts to increase their awareness cannot be overemphasized.

ER  -