Scaling Up HIV Testing and Counselling in Asia and the Pacific: Report of a Technical Consultation Phnom Penh, Cambodia

In response to concerns over low coverage of HIV testing and counselling in the Asia Pacific region, a "Joint WHO/UNICEF/UNAIDS technical consultation on scaling up HIV testing and counselling in the Asia Pacific" was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 4 to 6 June 2007. The aim of the meeting was to discuss how to scale up HIV testing and counselling services, discuss core public health approaches, ethical principles and human rights values to guide the expansion of HIV testing and counselling, and identify and agree on key actions for follow-up at the regional and country level for policy and programme implementation.

Participants recognized and agreed that there is an urgent need to scale up access to HIV counselling and testing in countries of the region as a means of enhancing access to comprehensive HIV prevention, care and treatment. Existing models of voluntary counselling and testing (client-initiated HIV testing and counselling) need to be strengthened, scaled up and complemented by approaches that can best fit the local epidemiological and social context and build on the potential of health services to offer HIV counselling and testing (provider-initiated HIV testing and counselling). A set of key conclusions and recommendations was agreed on by the consultation participants.