People in Botswana can get AIDS tests, but many hesitate
They fear the disease and being shunned
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, January 29, 2006
Gaborone- When Botswana first offered free AIDS treatment, health authorities in this country, one of the world's most infected, braced for a rush of patients.
It did not happen.
It turned out that most people were so afraid of the disease, and the frequent social ostracism, that they did not want to know if they were infected.
The reluctance to get help in one of the few African nations able to give it prompted a radical rethinking of how testing is done. Now, HIV tests are offered as a part of any medical visit.
In most places, patients are left to ask for a test themselves, then put through extensive counseling to prepare them in case HIV infection is found.
Despite years of education campaigns, the World Health Organization estimates that less than 10 percent of infected people in the African countries at the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic realize that they have the virus.
The decision of Botswana to start routine testing initially caused alarm among international health advocates, who worried that patients' rights to confidentiality and informed consent would be compromised.
"I think the first right of a human being is to be alive. All other rights are secondary," countered Segolame Ramotlhwa, the operations manager for the national treatment program known as Masa, or New Dawn.
He argues that confidentiality was being confused with secrecy, making doctors reluctant even to suggest testing for the disease.
Doctors here believe that pulling patients aside for special counseling is intimidating and helps fuel the stigma that keeps patients from seeking help.
"In fact, we found that people who had not made their minds up quite often were definitely against it once the pretest counseling was done," said Dr. Howard Moffat, the medical superintendent at Princess Marina Hospital in the capital, Gaborone.
"I think the medical profession itself ... played a major role in creating this fear of AIDS and this quite irrational reluctance to be tested."
Since the beginning of 2004, Botswana has treated HIV tests like any medical procedure.
Patients can refuse, but doctors say that most don't. They estimate that up to 35 percent of the country's 1.7 million people now know their status.
Source: Journalnow.com
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, January 29, 2006
Gaborone- When Botswana first offered free AIDS treatment, health authorities in this country, one of the world's most infected, braced for a rush of patients.
It did not happen.
It turned out that most people were so afraid of the disease, and the frequent social ostracism, that they did not want to know if they were infected.
The reluctance to get help in one of the few African nations able to give it prompted a radical rethinking of how testing is done. Now, HIV tests are offered as a part of any medical visit.
In most places, patients are left to ask for a test themselves, then put through extensive counseling to prepare them in case HIV infection is found.
Despite years of education campaigns, the World Health Organization estimates that less than 10 percent of infected people in the African countries at the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic realize that they have the virus.
The decision of Botswana to start routine testing initially caused alarm among international health advocates, who worried that patients' rights to confidentiality and informed consent would be compromised.
"I think the first right of a human being is to be alive. All other rights are secondary," countered Segolame Ramotlhwa, the operations manager for the national treatment program known as Masa, or New Dawn.
He argues that confidentiality was being confused with secrecy, making doctors reluctant even to suggest testing for the disease.
Doctors here believe that pulling patients aside for special counseling is intimidating and helps fuel the stigma that keeps patients from seeking help.
"In fact, we found that people who had not made their minds up quite often were definitely against it once the pretest counseling was done," said Dr. Howard Moffat, the medical superintendent at Princess Marina Hospital in the capital, Gaborone.
"I think the medical profession itself ... played a major role in creating this fear of AIDS and this quite irrational reluctance to be tested."
Since the beginning of 2004, Botswana has treated HIV tests like any medical procedure.
Patients can refuse, but doctors say that most don't. They estimate that up to 35 percent of the country's 1.7 million people now know their status.
Source: Journalnow.com
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 5:41 am
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