Promoting VCT at the workplace: Operations research among health workers and teachers

Issues: Two large and influential groups of workers – teachers and health workers – are often overlooked by HIV/AIDS workplace programs. It is assumed, often incorrectly, that these populations are knowledgeable about HIV-related issues and do not need targeted programming. Because of their status in the community, they may also defer seeking HIV testing due to fears of what the public may say. We describe two operations research projects that address these groups.

Description: The Zambia “Caring for Caregivers” intervention started in 2004 among 2700 hospital employees. The Kenya “Teachers Matter” intervention started in 2006 among 2000 primary and secondary school teachers. Both activities use a quasi-experimental research design with baseline and follow-up data collection. Both used an employee-centered peer education strategy that emphasizes HIV status awareness.

Lessons learnt: In both Zambia and Kenya, only 25% of hospital staff and teachers, respectively, had been tested for HIV at baseline. In Zambia, the intervention was associated with a 68% increase in getting tested at follow-up and in Kenya, monitoring activities indicate greater acceptance of HIV testing (follow-up data will be collected in March 2007). In both countries, the project has been associated with greater comfort discussing HIV. The findings also suggest that demystifying HIV testing by demonstrating the process is an important component of the interventions.

Recommendations: Because health workers and teachers are particularly crucial to a country's development, these groups should be targetted beneficiaries of HIV/AIDS workplace programs.