03 Dec 2014

Botswana has failed to reach the set target of testing 6 000 people for HIV in eight hours to beat the Guinness World Record of “Most HIV Tests Given in One City in Multiple Venues in 8 hours in One Day.”

The campaign which was organised by National Aids Coordinating Agency (NACA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health was held in Maun on Saturday, November 29 and a total of 2419 individuals tested.

 Botswana was in the race to break the Guinness World Record which is currently held by Argentina’s city of Rosario where 3 733 people were tested in one day over eight hours.

In an interview, Letsholathebe II Memorial hospital public relations officer, Mr Tumisang Letsholo said the country failed to reach the set target despite the fact that people came in large numbers.

The testing was done in ten points around Maun and it was marked to start at 9pm at all the sites until 5pm. 

Mr Letsholo observed that they experienced some last minute delays resulting in other sites starting five minutes later. He said there was a high influx of individuals coming to test towards the end of the event noting that all the dedicated tents for testing were full at any given point.

“This clearly showed that we should have provided more tents and we took it as a lesson. 

People were willing to test but the official time was over and we just tested them for our own records,” he added. 

Mr Letsholo said by the time the testing centers were closing there were still a good number of people queuing and they were referred to the local testing centers.

He said the testing took strictly eight hours under the observation of Dr Sun Gung, the Country coordinator UNAIDS - Botswana and the deputy national coordinator from NACA, Mr Fraizer Tlhoiwe.

In addition, he noted that they also engaged some independent observers and each site had two coordinators and a dedicated vehicle to ensure unlimited supplies and meticulousness flow of the testing.

Mr Letsholo said during debriefing it was suggested that such a campaign should be carried out in all districts and started earlier. 

The main aim of the campaign was to mobilise individuals and their families to know their HIV status and seek prevention and treatment services. ENDS