In 2001, TIME Magazine declared the southern quadrant of Africa "ground zero of humanity's deadliest cataclysm." In Zambia, one in every six people is infected with HIV and approximately 710,000 children are AIDS orphans.
The challenges associated with treating HIV are widely known, but in southern Africa, an equally vexing problem is often overlooked: How to identify those who need treatment.
Each year, the Zambia Medical Mission operates an HIV/AIDS Voluntary Counseling & Testing program that provides life-saving medical information to people in desperate need. Our doctors use technologically-sophisticated rapid tests to determine a patient's HIV status within a matter of minutes. Each test cost about one US Dollar. Patients then receive their test results from trained Christian counselors.
Here is a video explaining what we do:
