Abstract:
HIV counseling and testing services2 play an important role in HIV treatment and prevention efforts in
developing countries. Community-wide testing campaigns to detect HIV earlier may additionally impact
community knowledge and beliefs about HIV. We conducted a cluster-randomized evaluation of a home-based
HIV testing campaign in western Kenya and evaluated the effects of the campaign on community leaders’ and
members’ stigma toward people living with HIV/AIDS. We find that this type of large-scale HIV testing can be
implemented successfully in the presence of stigma, perhaps due to its ‘‘whole community’’ approach. The homebased HIV testing intervention resulted in community leaders reporting lower levels of stigma. However, stigma
among community members reacted in mixed ways, and there is little evidence that the program affected beliefs
about HIV prevalence and prevention