Background: Mining is one of the major sectors of the country’s economy as it employs and attracts a large
number of people from different areas. As a result, communities in and around mining sites are at great risk of
HIV transmission. While a few unsynchronized mine-specific population-based studies provide evidence of a
growing HIV problem in this sector, virtually few evidence exists on availability and quality of interventions
targeting HIV and AIDS in this population. The study was conducted to assess the availability and quality of
HIV/AIDS intervention programmes in and around mining sites in Tanzania.
Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted from November 2012 to April 2013. Both quantitative and
qualitative methods were used to collect data. Study areas involved both mining sites and its surrounding
communities in Kahama, Nzega and Geita Districts. It involved household members from villages in and around
the mining sites, mining community relations officers, community health facility workers, district HIV/AIDS focal
persons and village leaders.
Results: A total of 463 individuals were recruited into the study for household interviews. In-depth interviews
with Key Informants involved 15 respondents. HIV/AIDS intervention programmes in the study area were
available despite that knowledge of their existence was limited to a segment of the community. Their
availability was only known to about 25% of the study respondents in Geita and Kahama study sites. The
programmes carried out intervention activities which included HIV/AIDS education campaigns, promoting
uptake of voluntary counselling and testing services, promoting and supporting condom use, safer sex, and
male circumcision. HIV/AIDS services such as screening, distribution of condoms and ARVs for infected people
were available and were offered free of charge.
Conclusion: Our findings show that HIV/AIDS intervention programmes were available despite that they were
unequally distributed. Although their availability has contributed to the decrease of HIV prevalence in the
community, knowledge of their availability was limited to some people in the community.