Metrics details. As a response, the Government of Tanzania launched a Test and Treat campaign in June with a focus on reaching men and developed the Male Catch-Up plan. This article reports 1 the enablers and barriers of HIV testing services HTS uptake among men 2 and describes the strategies that were proposed as part of the Male Catch-Up Plan to address some of these barriers.
Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 23 men in Dar es Salaam to explore HTS enablers and barriers. Proposed strategies from the Male Catch-Up Plan to address these barriers included non-biomedical and biomedical approaches. Non-biomedical strategies are social and cultural approaches to promote an enabling environment to encourage health seeking behavior, safe behavior, and providing peer education programs and social marketing to promote condoms.
A number of barriers contribute to the low uptake of HTS among men in Tanzania. National strategies have been developed to address these HTS barriers and guide the national Test and Treat campaign focusing on increasing HTS uptake among men. Peer Review reports. In Tanzania, existing evidence indicates that HIV incidence and prevalence have declined and stabilized [ 2 , 3 ].
HIV prevalence has also declined in Tanzania from 7. However, there exists age and gender differentials in HIV prevalence in Tanzania, with the prevalence among young women aged 25—29 being three times higher compared to young men in the same age group [ 2 , 3 ]. In addition, there is a marked rural-urban and sex differences in HIV prevalence, with higher prevalence existing among both men and women in urban 7.
In order to continue the decline of HIV incidence and lower the prevalence among young women, more efforts are needed to reach the male partners of young women in Tanzania with HIV prevention programs. Benefits associated with HTS include, but are not limited to, early detection and initiation of HIV care and treatment [ 4 ].
