Abstract:

Background: Voluntary consoling and testing (VCT) for HIV is one of the strategies for HIV/AIDS prevention as well as a crucial entry point to CTC and yet, there is very little information on what influences the services in Tanzania.

Objectives: To assess the perceived benefits and barriers of Voluntary HIV counseling and testing among Secondary School Students in Ilemela District, using the Health Belief Model.

Methodology: This was cross-sectional analytical study conducted in May 2015 on Ordinary level Secondary School Students in Ilemela District, Mwanza-Tanzania. A total of 250 Girls students were involved from four different secondary schools. An anonymous questionnaire including questions on knowledge on HIV, Sexual behavior, Knowledge of HIV VCT, perception on HIV VCT and readiness to test for HIV was used and the collected data were then transferred to the SPSS version 17.0 Computer program where analysis of the results was done.

Results: 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

Conclusion: This study has come to a conclusion is no 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 lectures should be included both in primary and secondary school syllabus to increase awareness of personal susceptibility to HIV/AIDS and benefits of VCT benefits.