Barriers to VCT despite 13 years of community-based awareness campaigns in a peri-urban township in northern Limpopo.

Over the past 8 years, the South African government has supported prevention campaigns, expanded voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) sites, and increased the access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) to decrease the burden of the epidemic.3,4 VCT was offered at 87% of primary health care facilities in Limpopo Province in 2003.5 By 2007, 42% of the people in need of ART in South Africa had commenced it.4 Despite VCT’s benefits and the increased number of testing sites, many South Africans remain untested for HIV for various reasons.