HIV testing

I went to antenatal and learned about HIV testing. The tests are like pregnancy tests and give results in 30 minutes. In Kampala, I watched as the blood samples from 7 pregnant women and their 7 husbands were tested. I watched the control lines turn and saw 13 negative tests. And one that was positive.

The positive was one of the women and her husband was negative. I talked to the lab tech about what they do. He retested the husband and wife’s samples with all three of the available types of tests. She was confirmed as positive and he was negative. And sitting right outside. Waiting.

The system is that the couples or women arrive, are interviewed for a health history, go to a pre-test counselling session, go to the lab for the HIV blood draw, wait for the results, go to post-test counselling to receive the results, then go get palpated, get their BP taken and then go.
It was a cruddy feeling knowing that someone’s life was about to change forever. But better to know. And the perinatal period is a window for accessing women for testing, and a critical time to know status for reducing mother to child transmission.

As I went back later to show Carole the lab, I saw an increasing pile of test strips on the counter and on one perforated card 5 of 10 tests were positive.

“You do not have this struggle in Canada”

“You must clearly label the husband and wife’s tests as you do not want to give the wrong person the disease.”