Universal AIDS Testing Scheme Fails in Lesotho: Rights Group

Today in Johannesburg, Human Rights Watch and the AIDS Rights Alliance for Southern Africa said inadequate training and funding were to blame for the failure of a universal HIV testing plan in Lesotho. "Lesotho's program was noble in ambition but weak in action," the groups said. The outreach, launched in 2005, set out to test everyone over age 12 and had a long-term goal of testing 1.3 million people. By August 2007, however, it had tested only 25,000. A lack of funding, together with administrative problems, largely doomed efforts to train thousands of counselors and boost AIDS support services, the report said. In addition, the program failed to gain patients' informed consent before testing and guarantee their confidentiality. Completely surrounded by South Africa, Lesotho has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates: 23.2 percent of persons ages 15-49 are thought to be carrying the virus.

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