Acceptability of Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) Among Tuberculosis (TB) Patients in Ghana

Patients should first be counselled and tested for HIV to benefit from available care and treatment options. The aim of this paper was to find out the level of acceptance of HIV testing among patients who visit the Chest Diseases Clinic of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana. Information about all adult tuberculosis patients who attended the clinic between January and December 2019 in which patients’ socio-demographic information and tuberculosis treatment history were taken from the TB register, patients who showed initial willingness were referred to a VCT counsellor for HIV counselling before testing was done. Rapid test methods were used, and the results were disclosed. The logistic regression method was used to assess the factors associated with HIV co-infection, willingness, and acceptability. 250 tuberculosis (TB) patients who were among the total of 485 gave their consent and willingly participated in this study. Their median age was 30 years (range, 13–50+), and 56.8% of them were females. 29 patients had tested previously, including 29 HIV positive. 66.0% (165) were willing to be tested.

Sensitive and reliable paper-based glucose sensing mechanisms with smartphone readout using the L*a*b* color space

Paper-based assay platforms play an important role among rapid test methods.