2009 Campaign Results

Quotes

“The Kenya government’s achievement of testing more than 1.2 million people nationwide throughout the campaign, underscores their commitment to providing free, rapid HIV testing,” said. We look forward to expanding collaborative efforts that further support Kenya’s national HIV/AIDS response.”

Dr. Penninah Iuntug
AHF East/West Africa Bureau Chief - Uganda

“…We must always do these activities with respect, ethics, professionalism and fellowship, which are the basic elements for success in applying the AHF testing model. It was a big challenge for growth and evaluation, which we are personally thankful for.”

- Alejandro Jaime
Aspane Nueva Era AC, Mexico

“We applaud the leadership and support of our international partner, AIDS Healthcare Foundation for spearheading the Testing Millions Campaign, and who’s support through their Uganda Cares office has been critical to the increased testing we have been able to achieve in previously underserved, rural communities of Uganda.”

- Enoch Magala,
Program Coordinator
Mpolyabigere RC-Riced Center,Uganda

“The availability of easy and free rapid HIV testing makes it possible not only to improve the quality of HIV prevention and psychosocial support, but most importantly to quickly refer those individuals found to be HIV positive to lifesaving care and treatment when needed, which contributes to better overall control of the epidemic. That is why we fully support AHF’s innovative testing model and have successfully implemented it in Estonia with national partners."

- Igor Sobolev, Board Chairman,
Estonian Network of People Living with HIV

THE CHALLENGE

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 33 Million people are living with HIV/AIDS
The vast majority of positive people worldwide are unaware of their HIV status.
9.7 Million people are in urgent need of lifesaving antiretroviral treatment (ART) today.
Less than 3 Million people have access to ART today, leaving more than 6 Million to become sick and die.
Traditional VCT models are inadequate and inefficient to provide the testing volume to reach global demand.

Welcome to the Testing Millions Campaign

For the second year in a row AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) proved the efficiency of its innovative rapid HIV testing model over the conventional Volunteer Counseling and Testing (VCT) process by testing 4,270,226 people during an extended commemoration of World AIDS Day from November 1st to December 15th, 2009.

The ‘TESTING MILLIONS - 2009 World AIDS Day Campaign’ surpassed the achievements of the previous year’s “ONE MILLION TESTS Campaign’, initially introduced at the 2008 International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, by nearly 2.7 million tests.

The 2009 results identified 110,168 HIV positive individuals - an overall sero-positivity rate of 2.58% - as compared to 61,294 individuals found to be HIV positive in 2008, an overall sero-positivity rate of 3.9%.

The guiding principal of the campaign is to mobilize non-government organizations (NGOs), governments, faith-based agencies and individuals to provide free HIV testing at large-scale events around the world - that include streamlined group pre-test counseling, a variety of new rapid testing products and consistent referrals to care or antiretroviral treatment - as a way to help people learn their HIV status and stem the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

In both years, the testing itself commenced in conjunction with Cambodia’s Water Festival national holiday during the first week of November, and concluded at the end of the second week of December, following the commemoration of World AIDS Day on December 1st.