HEALTH - Institutions should encourage their employees to take HIV tests, a senior official of the Social Security Fund of Rwanda (SSFR) has said.

The Human Resource Manager of the Fund Innocent Rurangwa made the called yesterday at CSR headquarters in Kacyiru as he led the way by testing for HIV.

"Institutions should play a role in this because AIDS takes a toll on employees,” he said. Several SSFR staff members were also tested.

SSFR regularly carries out HIV testing of its workers, he added.

The Fund employs 228 workers throughout the country.

Rurangwa said that 157 employees from the headquarters in Kigali were the first to be tested while others will do so in the near future.

Clemence Nishimwe, a nurse in charge of the programme of the testing programme at SSFR, said that each employee contributes Frw1, 000 every month towards a medical fund for fellow workers living with HIV virus.

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