Duke research shows the use of vouchers can be an effective way to recruit more people who are high risk of contracting HIV, especially in rural villages where testing is limited.

A research team led by Elizabeth Reddy, DGHI faculty member and co-site director of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre-Duke Collaboration, is studying strategies to enhance uptake of HIV testing in Tanzania - where data shows that 70-80% of Tanzanians had not been tested for HIV in 2009. As part of a pilot study, Duke and Tanzanian researchers distributed up to five vouchers to Tanzanians receiving HIV care at nine rural, urban and mobile care and treatment centers (CTCs). Participants gave the vouchers to family, friends and neighbors to cover the cost of transportation to free HIV testing sites.

Research showed that vouchers were most effective at recruiting testers from rural CTC sites, probably because of the limited access to testing and health services. For every 11 vouchers distributed, one person was successfully recruited for testing.  Five times as many people tested positive for HIV than the estimated HIV prevalence of their community - showing that the vouchers were successfully attracting high-risk populations.  

It is hard to believe it has been two years since the earthquake. For those of us who worked in Haiti prior to the earthquake, we still vividly remember exactly where we were on the evening of January 12th when we first received word of the disaster. It was not until the next morning when we awoke to the first pictures coming out of Haiti on the morning news that the full magnitude of what we were up against hit home. We still are flooded with tremendous emotion when these yearly anniversaries roll around and we reflect back on those first few weeks post-earthquake.

Haiti today is making progress. It is always slow going in Haiti, but the country is returning to a "new normal". They do have a functioning government with a visible president that is making generally good decisions. It is fair to say the country is the most stable and safe it has been in years. Building efforts are underway. Rubble removal is much further along than is generally portrayed. General infrastructure is always an issue. Roads still need improvement as well as water quality and sanitation.  

Family Health Ministries and Duke profs. Deborah Jenson and Laurent Dubois are also featured in The Herald-Sun.