Sharing HIV test results with future and current marriage partners in Zambia

Kara Counselling and Training Trust (Kara) began offering voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV to the Zambian public in 1992. In the first years, clients came for testing because they were sick. These days however, more and more healthy young people are requesting tests for other reasons: they may be planning to get married, to have children or to engage in unprotected sex after being in an intimate relationship for some time. More than 20% of the clients now come for marriage-related reasons--as individuals or as couples. People want to know their HIV status so they can share it with their current or future spouse in order to make informed choices and protect each other's sexual and reproductive health.