What Works for Women and Girls

What Works—HIV Testing and Counseling for Women1. Voluntary counseling and testing can help women know their HIV infection status andincrease their protective behaviors, particularly among those who test HIV-positive.2. Providing VCT together with other health services can increase the number of peopleaccessing VCT.3. Mass media interventions can increase the numbers of individuals and couplesaccessing VCT.4. Community outreach and mobilization can increase uptake of VCT.5. Home testing, consented to by household members, can increase the number ofpeople who learn their serostatus.Promising Strategies:6. Encouraging couple dialogue and counseling, including techniques to avert genderbasedviolence, may increase the number of couples who receive and disclose theirtest results.7. Knowledge of treatment availability may increase uptake of HIV testing.8. Promotion of VCT by people openly living with HIV may increase uptake of VCT.9. Availability of VCT on-site at workplaces may increase uptake of VCT.10. Counseling may reduce risk behaviors and HIV acquisition.11. Incorporating discussions of alcohol use into VCT and HIV counseling may increaseprotective behaviors such as condom use, partner reduction and reduction of alcoholuse.12. VCT may be successfully provided to internally displaced people.13. Support programs for rape survivors may be effective in encouraging survivors to testfor HIV and access services.EVIDENCE1. Voluntary counseling and testing can help women know their HIV infection status andincrease their protective behaviors, particularly among those who test HIV-positive.A randomized control trial in Tanzania, Kenya and Trinidad found that individuals overthe age of 18 who received VCT significantly changed their risk behaviors comparedWHAT WORKS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS151