Quality of home-based rapid HIV testing by community lay counsellors in a rural district of South Africa.

Introduction: Lack of universal, annual testing for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in health facilities suggests that expansion of HIV testing and counselling (HTC) to non-clinical settings is critical to the achievement of national goals for prevention, care and treatment. Consideration should be given to the ability of lay counsellors to perform home-based HTC in community settings.

Methods: We implemented a community cluster randomized controlled trial of home-based HTC in Sisonke District, South Africa.