Source: http://arbiteronline.com/2010/09/07/make-sure-youre-not-hiv-positive/

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“A wide range of HIV-related events can be of traumatic intensity for some individuals”, comment the researchers.

Life-threatening illness is recognised as a possible stressor that can lead to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder. In a standard text book for the diagnosis of mental disorders (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition Text Revision) this stress is defined as “the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury or threat to the physical integrity of self and others”, with the individual’s emotional response involving “fear, helplessness, or horror.”

Investigators wished to see if a broad-range of HIV-related events were associated with the development of post-traumatic stress disorder. They hypothesised that experiencing one or more events would be linked with symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and that perceived threat and emotional distress would be associated with such symptoms. They also wished to see if shame-related emotions were associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Their study sample included 100 HIV-positive gay men. These individuals were self-selecting, collecting their study questionnaire from an HIV service provider or downloaded it from the internet.

The patients had a mean age of 43 years, the mean number of years since diagnosis with HIV was eight, most (95%) were white, 68% had received a college education, 47% were employed, and 56% defined themselves as being single.

Overall, 33%of the sample met the diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder.

Over half the sample (55%) reported that their HIV diagnosis was traumatic, 40% said that the experience of HIV-related symptoms caused trauma, and 30% said that they were traumatised by witnessing a death related to HIV. Other traumatic events included starting HIV treatment (19%), experiencing treatment side-effects (29%) and self-disclosing HIV status (15%).

Experiencing HIV-related symptoms was associated with feelings of physical threat, leading to the development of stress disorder.

For all the other measures emotional distress – fear, helplessness, or horror – was associated with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

The only socio-demographic characteristic associated with an increased risk of reporting symptoms of post-traumatic stress was under- or unemployment (p < 0.05).

Physical symptoms (p < 0.01) and witnessing an HIV-related death (p < 0.05) were all significantly associated with symptoms of traumatic stress. The investigators believe that such experiences may immediately recall the “immediate threat posed by HIV.”

The investigators were surprised to find that starting HIV treatment (p < 0.01) was strongly associated with symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Few people (27%) perceived treatment as being physically threatening. The investigators speculated that there may be “catastrophic expectations about the limitations [treatment] may impose on social or occupational functioning, thus leading to traumatic fear, or the perceived failure of…lifestyle remedies leading to traumatic helplessness.”

The inclusion of shame-related emotions in the investigators’ analysis only modestly increased the proportion of patients who could be said to have experienced a traumatic event.

Individuals living with HIV can experience long periods of good health and stability, note the investigators. However, they suggest that receiving bad test results or witnessing HIV-related illness and death could cause “intense fear, helplessness or horror” that can predict the development of symptoms of post-tr aumatic stress. They recommend that HIV doctors should be watchful for symptoms such as “reexperiencing the event, behavioural avoidance or emotional numbing.”

Limitations of the study include its cross-sectional design. The investigators also acknowledge that they were unable to control for potentially confounding factors such as social support, non-HIV-related stressors, stigma, stressful life events, and past mental health problems.

Nevertheless, the investigators believe that their study adds to the literature that associates HIV with posttraumatic stress and that this is “primarily associated with fear, helplessness, or horror as opposed to shame, humiliation, or guilt.”

Source: http://www.aidsmap.com/page/1506783/

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The Akron AIDS Coalition of Ohio has made mobile testing a major part of its mission. The group provides free at-home HIV testing in the Akron area, which has seen dramatic increases in the number of people infected with the disease, according to the West Side Leader.

“We are the only African-American-based organization that provides HIV testing, as the kids would say, in the hood,” Steve Arlington, the group’s executive director, told the news source. “I tell our staff, you have to test people where they are. Next week, they might change their mind.”

He added that the group’s mobile screeners use the fastest HIV testing methods, which can deliver results in as little as 20 minutes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are more than 1 million individuals in the U.S. living with HIV, many of whom are unaware of their infection.

Source: http://www.privatemdlabs.com/blood-testing-news/HIV/Mobile-HIV-testing-seeks-to-reduce-rates-of-infection-$19924786.php

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From 2008 to 2009, the hospital conducted 25,000 rapid and standard HIV tests, and it is on track to do 18,000 this year. “The more people who know their status, the more people we get into care. We decrease the community viral load and decrease the number of infections,” said Ralph Belloise, director of HIV services at St. Barnabas.

The Bronx is especially affected by HIV/AIDS, say New York City health department officials. The borough is home to nearly a quarter of the city’s HIV infections and a third of its annual AIDS deaths. Some 106,000 city residents were living with HIV/AIDS in 2008. This number has grown steadily for the past 10 years, officials note. One in five infected residents are unaware of their status.

The health department in 2008 launched “The Bronx Knows,” a borough-wide effort to boost voluntary HIV testing. Roughly 75 community organizations, including hospitals, had administered more than 375,000 HIV tests as of June. Of these, 1,275 tests were positive, according to the health department.

Testing rates are rising at other city hospitals and agencies, too. Health and Hospitals Corp., which operates city-owned hospitals, tested almost 190,000 people last year, said Terry Hamilton, director of HIV services, up from 50,000 tests in 2004. Almost 90 percent of the tests it performs this year will provide rapid results.

Source: http://www.thebody.com/content/art58297.html

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In June, our state legislature passed groundbreaking legislation requiring HIV testing to be offered routinely in medical settings. The law will go into effect on Wednesday, September 1st. Previously, patients were required to sign a separate written consent form in order to get tested for HIV. Now, if you agree to a quick swab test, you will only have to give oral consent. When undergoing routine medical procedures or check-ups, you will be offered a standard HIV blood test to sign off on along with the battery of tests that most patients receive. Once you give your consent, it stays in effect for all your future blood tests.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 100,000 people in New York City alone are currently living with HIV infection, but more than 25,000 of them do not know it. After all, HIV can take ten years or more to progress to AIDS, the syndrome that destroys your immune system and leaves you vulnerable to all manner of opportunistic infections.

Most of these unknowing carriers of HIV feel and look healthy and are, in most respects. But they are missing out on treatments that could prevent them from progressing to AIDS. Plus, they are in danger of transmitting the virus to others, continuing to fuel the epidemic.

Yes, researchers have made enormous progress in treating HIV with anti-retroviral drugs that have extended the lifespan of people with HIV/AIDS by decades. HIV prevention was once driven in part by the fear of the horrible, disfiguring diseases that preceded the untimely deaths of our friends and loved ones. Now, the number of older people living with AIDS is skyrocketing as new infections rise among the young.

Today, fewer people even acknowledge having HIV/AIDS because they are experiencing relatively good health (if they have access to treatment) and do not want to complicate their employment or community lives. That has made HIV prevention much, much harder in 2010, especially among young people who are under the illusion that there is a cure for HIV that involves just taking a few pills. It in fact involves taking drugs almost daily that can have very debilitating side effects for the rest of your life.

Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) was founded 29 years ago by a brave band of gay men led by Larry Kramer who were screaming about the impending epidemic when almost no one in the community or media or government would pay attention to it. Today, there is a vast network of service organizations such as ours along with government programs to help people with HIV/AIDS and prevent new infections. Yet we are all going to have to step up our efforts to meet the new demand for AIDS services brought on by all the people who are going to find out about having HIV under the new testing protocol.

This new AIDS crisis is coming at a time when state and federal funding for AIDS is being cut in the current economic crisis. While New York has one of the best AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) in the country to make sure that all people with HIV can afford their drugs, other states have long waiting lists to receive these lifesaving treatments. And with most HIV infections disproportionately hitting poorer people of color and others who are disenfranchised, the challenge of getting them the treatment, services, and prevention they need is even more challenging.

The country took a big step forward in this fight on July 13 when President Obama announced the nation’s first National HIV/AIDS Strategy, one that GMHC led the call for. It stresses the need for much more culturally relevant interventions targeting gay men and communities of color and the desperate need for greater cooperation between government, community- and faith-based organizations, and the private sector.

We are all going to have to pull together to meet this new challenge and GMHC will continue to advocate vociferously for the public policies and funding needed to address it. As our city confronts a spike in bias-related violence, prejudice also fuels the spread of HIV. We have to see racism and anti-gay bigotry as the public health problems that they are if we are to get new HIV infections under control. We must also understand the central role that HIV stigma, intertwined with antigay stigma, continues to play in the epidemic.

In the midst of this, GMHC is going through a big transition of our own. Our 15-year lease on West 24th Street is up and we had to move or face tens of millions more in costs. After a difficult search, we found a great new space on West 33rd Street that will save us millions which can be put right back into direct services, and allow us to consolidate on two sprawling floors rather than the 12 smaller ones we currently occupy. We will continue to provide HIV testing and prevention services at a new Wellness Center in Chelsea.

GMHC and all HIV/AIDS service providers need your help and support to meet these new challenges. Concern about AIDS in the US has receded as other crises have come to the forefront and attention has justly shifted to the AIDS pandemic in the Third World. But please remember that the crisis at home is far from over.

I am honored to be leading GMHC at this time. I have a job where I hear virtually each day from people who tell me, “Thank God for GMHC” or “GMHC saved my life.” While we look forward to the day when our services will no longer be needed, the time is now for us all to ramp up our commitment to serving those with HIV and vastly intensify our prevention efforts so that fewer and fewer will test positive.

GMHC is a not-for-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based organization committed to national leadership in the fight against AIDS. We provide prevention and care services to men, women and families that are living with, or affected by, HIV/AIDS in New York City. We advocate for scientific, evidence-based public health solutions for hundreds of thousands worldwide.

For more information, please visit www.gmhc.org.

Source: Healthnewsdigest

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Foursquare and MTV think you should.

The addictive mobile app has teamed up with the home of Jersey Shore and Teen Mom to encourage people to find out if they’re one of the one in five Americans with an STD.

And then they want you to tell the world.

After you drop by the doc’s, you can download a “GYT” — that’s Get Yourself Tested — badge from the geo-caching game.

Because there’s no way to celebrate becoming the mayor like yelling, “I got tested for crabs today!”

I give MTV and Foursquare credit for the project. It’s an important message, and if you’ve watched an episode of Jersey Shore lately, you might be wondering if syphilis has gotten to their brains.

But saying you “got tested” usually means you thought you “needed” to be tested. Which means you’re announcing to the world of Foursquare (including your granny) that you did something where you maybe sort of possibly could have caught a raging case of something.

Have heart — so has most every other person on the planet. Even people who are totally monogamous can have an STD.

And sometimes the anonymity is a bit … over the top? I was required by NY State law to have an HIV test (negative yo!) when I was pregnant. My OB/GYN offered me the chance to go for an anonymous test … even though, um, he would get the results?

Letting your doctor in on your STD fears is one thing, though. Letting the whole world know is a whole uncomfortable talk with Granny about kids these days.

Unless you’re just in it for the free trip to New York City they’re giving away. Ah, gotcha there, didn’t we?

Would you let people know you just got tested?

Source: The Stir

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A pastor has angered Christians in South Africa by preaching a sermon entitled “Jesus was HIV-positive” in an attempt to break what he regards as a conspiracy of silence by the South African church.

Xola Skosana said that HIV is stigmatised as evil and a sin in the country that has the world’s biggest caseload.

Skosana, 43, underwent a HIV test in front of his congregation last Sunday at the non-denominational Way of Life church in Khayelitsha , Cape Town. The test was also taken by 100 young people from the impoverished township.

The pastor said he chose the title for his three-part sermon to draw attention to “a very serious issue”.

“In many parts of the Bible, God put himself in the position of the destitute, the sick, the marginalised,” he said. “When we attend to those who are sick, we are attending to him. When we ignore people who are sick, we are ignoring him.”

Skosana cited a passage in the Bible where Jesus says: “I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” But he has had a hostile reaction in some quarters.

“The scathing attacks I’ve received from Christians are unbelievable,” he said. “They’re saying you can’t reconcile Jesus and Aids. They assume it means Jesus was promiscuous and had a louche lifestyle with many sexual partners.”

Skosana lost two sisters to Aids. One died last month at the age of 44. The other died in 2003 in her early 20s.

He condemned the national church for failing to tackle the issue when nearly 1,000 people are dying from Aids-related causes every day. The South African government had been accused of Aids “denialism” but has more recently been praised for its prevention and treatment programmes.

“It baffles me why in the church this is the most untalked-about subject,” Skosana said. “If I went to church and never heard the pastor talk about this, I would assume I must go home and die in silence. The message is that it’s an unpardonable sin and we must just forget about HIV/Aids.

“My responsibility as a pastor is to open a Bible and paint a picture of a God who cares for people and wants the best for them, not who judges them and is ashamed of them.”

He called on other churches to be more open about the subject. “I hope this will change the paradigm, especially in the Pentecostal background. I come from the Pentecostal background and I know this discussion is totally alien there.”

Skosana will not disclose the result of his public HIV test in case it puts pressure on the churchgoers who followed his example. They had heard him explain the virus, possible treatments and the importance of knowing their status and were given professional counselling.

Skosana’s stance was praised by South Africa’s National Aids Council. Mark Heywood, its deputy chairperson, said: “I applaud his actions. It’s very important that church leaders set an example, destigmatising HIV and encouraging testing so people know their status.

“There are many churches that have done a lot to combat HIV. The problem is that the church as a whole has not been vocal enough. It’s often been left to individual church leaders and organisations. We would like to hear a clearer message.”

The South African Council of Churches was unavailable for comment.

Source: Guardian

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The first special event, the Fall Health Fair at the State College of Florida’s Venice campus, will be held from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 8, in the Selby Room at the college, 8000 S. Tamiami Trail, Venice. Mobile unit staff will provide sexually transmitted disease (STD) and HIV testing, blood pressure and blood sugar screening, and Body Mass Index (BMI) measurements.

The other two September special events are free HIV testing as part of the National Aging and HIV Awareness Day and National Gay Men’s HIV-AIDS Awareness Day public health campaigns.

To encourage testing in adults over 50 years old, free HIV testing will be available from 9:30 a.m.-noon on Friday, Sept. 17, at the Senior Friendship Center, 2350 Scenic Drive, Venice.

Free HIV testing also will be available during the presentation of the play “Return to the Mineshaft” at the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre, 25 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. That event, scheduled from 6-9 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 26, is part of the National Gay Men’s HIV-AIDS Awareness Day campaign.

Regular services provided at the 15 sites by the mobile medical unit staff include diabetes education and screening, blood pressure tests, pregnancy testing, HIV and tuberculosis testing, adult immunizations and health education. The staff also assists in finding a medical home that provides ongoing health care services for anyone who lacks medical insurance and does not have a health care provider.

No appointment is needed. Some services are free, including HIV rapid testing with results in 20 minutes. Other services offered at other locations are on a sliding fee scale based on income. Licensed volunteer physicians from the Senior Friendship Centers provide basic medical care when the mobile medical unit is at the Salvation Army in Sarasota. A registered nurse is available at all sites.

Source: mysuncoast.com

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She was 30 years old and had contracted malaria after a holiday in Senegal. The doctors ordered blood tests and asked whether she wanted to have an HIV test at the same time. When the results came back, malaria was suddenly the least of her worries.

“I was completely devastated, paralysed and terrified,” she recalled. “I thought I was going to die a horrible death. I couldn’t tell my friends or family. I went home, locked myself in my room and cried for three days straight.”

To be diagnosed with such a fearful disease was heartbreaking, but there was one small silver lining. Ms Petretti discovered she had been diagnosed just as the first batch of successful anti-retroviral medicines were coming on to the market. She was immediately put on a gruelling course of medication to stop the virus from replicating.

“To begin with I was on 18 pills a day, some with food, some without food. I had very dry skin, nausea, tingling over the body, diarrhoea. It was incredibly demoralising,” she said.

Over the past decade, scientists have drastically improved the medication used to fight HIV, allowing patients to live increasingly normal, healthy lives. With the right treatment, HIV-positive mothers have a 99 per cent chance of giving birth to HIV-negative children. The life expectancy of someone living with the disease has also increased significantly.

Ms Petretti, who is now 44, takes only four pills a day with no side effects. Her viral load – the measure of the amount of HIV in her bloodstream – is undetectable and, she says, she hasn’t had a sick day since being diagnosed. But, although improvements in medicine have changed the quality of life of thousands for the better, many in the HIV community are unhappy about the way society views them.

“HIV isn’t epidemic anymore, not in the UK,” says Ms Petretti. “Do you want to know what the new epidemic is? Stigma. Stigma is everywhere.”

Nowhere are society’s attitudes towards HIV more fraught than during the criminal prosecutions of people who have passed on the disease to their lovers through unprotected sex. Earlier this week, the German pop star Nadja Benaissa appeared in court charged with one count of grievous bodily harm and two counts of attempted bodily harm for allegedly sleeping unprotected with three men between 2000 and 2004, despite knowing she was HIV positive. Only one of the men is now HIV positive – but that hasn’t stopped German prosecutors from charging her for “assaulting” her two other lovers.

For many, such prosecutions are clearly justified. If you are HIV-positive, failing to use protection is wrong, and people who do so should be brought to justice. Infecting someone with HIV, prosecutors argue, is akin to murder.

The prosecution of “deliberate” or “reckless” HIV transmissions, however, is a relatively recent phenomenon and – ironically – has coincided with the disease becoming less deadly.

About 40 countries around the world have either enacted laws or used existing legislation to bring prosecutions against HIV carriers who have infected others. In Britain, at least nine people have been convicted, primarily under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, a law that treats the HIV virus as a potentially deadly weapon. Nobody has yet been prosecuted for “intentional transmission” because it is so difficult to prove. Instead, prosecutors go for the lesser charge of “reckless transmission”, which critics say criminalises behaviour rather than proving intent.

Outside of Britain, HIV carriers have been jailed even when they haven’t passed on their infection. There has been no recorded incident of HIV passing through saliva, but that didn’t stop a court in Texas in 2008 from handing down a 35-year sentence to Willie Campbell, a 42-year-old homeless man who spat in the face of police officers. Edwin Cameron, a South African judge, commented: “It stuns the mind that someone who has actually not harmed anyone … could be locked away for 35 years. The inference that his HIV status played a pivotal role in sending him away for so long is unavoidable. In short: the man was punished not for what he did, but for the virus he carried.”

Some African states, such as Sierra Leone, have even prosecuted mothers who pass on HIV to their babies.

The desire to punish someone who maliciously passes HIV on to another person is understandable. But many activists are uncomfortable about how such prosecutions affect the vast majority of HIV carriers who do everything in their power to protect their lovers.

What is it about HIV, they ask, that terrifies us so much we feel the need to prosecute transmissions? Police don’t arrest people for assault if you deliberately pass on chlamydia or overfeed your child to the point of morbid obesity. Many prosecutions in Britain and abroad, meanwhile, have only been launched once a relationship between an HIV carrier and their partner has broken down.

Angelina Namiba works with Ms Petretti at Positively UK, a charity in north London which offers advice and support to newly diagnosed HIV carriers. She contracted HIV as a woman in her early 20s. “I did what millions of young people in this country do every week,” she said. “I didn’t use protection.”

Summoning up the courage to be open about her status took support and time. But she is concerned about what message prosecutions send out to young and vulnerable people.

“Criminalisation is hampering two decades’ work against stigmatisation and discouraging people who think they might be HIV positive to be tested,” she said. “Of course it is morally wrong for people to try and harm anybody intentionally. But criminal prosecutions are not the best way to prevent transmission and protect public health.”

According to the Health Protection Agency, 27 per cent of people with HIV in Britain are unaware that they are carrying the virus. Yet encouraging people to come forward for testing is vital to stop the spread of the disease.

Ms Petretti believes the law is being used as a blunt instrument. “Of course when someone is infected with HIV a wrong has happened,” she said. “I was infected by somebody, I felt angry and cheated. But harsh laws and jail sentences are not right. They increase stigma and they make it much harder for people living with HIV to be more open, disclose their status, negotiate safer sex and go for tests.”

HIV in Britain

83,000: Estimated number of Britons with HIV in 2008.

27%: The proportion of UK sufferers thought to not know they have the infection.

7,928: The number of new diagnoses of HIV in the UK during 2008 – a slight decline on previous years.

£1.1bn: The estimated amount of money which would have been saved if HIV infections acquired in the UK in 2008 had been prevented.

Chris Smith

The Labour politician, who was Culture Secretary under Tony Blair and the UK’s first openly gay MP, acknowledged that he was HIV positive in a newspaper interview in 2005.

Smith said he had been diagnosed in 1987 and had lived with it ever since, keeping it a secret from his party leader. He said he had decided to go public after the former South African president, Nelson Mandela, announced his son had died of Aids.

“I didn’t feel the need to tell people, except for a very, very few, as it was not in any way affecting my work,” he said at the time.

Source: The Independent

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Source: Swazi Observer

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By Kassim Mohamed

Holding the holy Quran in her right hand, Amina adjusts her veil. She appears like any other ordinary woman on the streets of Nairobi but Amina has had a recent past full of emotional turmoil.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

“A gang of 12 men raped me in turns on January 15, 2008. I passed out. That’s a day I’ll never forget in my entire life,” Amina bitterly says adjusting her veil.

Amina was born and brought up in Mogadishu but moved to Kenya along with her husband and five months old son in 2005. When life became too hard to cope in Nairobi, they relocated to Narok, a small town 200 km west of Nairobi.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

With the help of relatives living abroad, the young family started a business: money came in and life appeared rosy. Kenya became a safe heaven and they considered it a home away from home but just until Kenya’s disputed election results were announced. In front of her maid and three-year old son, Amina was gang raped.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

“My husband was not around, he left just before the Kenyan election for Mogadishu to see the other two wives and children back there. After the incident I didn’t inform him about what happened. I was too scared; he might consider me as an infidel. He doesn’t know up to now”.

In July 2008, the family left for Mogadishu and settled there for a while. However, the constant violence in the Horn of Africa country saw them back to Nairobi, Kenya.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

She went for an HIV test in October 2009 and tested positive and because of the high levels of stigma attached to HIV/AIDS in her community, this 26 year old has not revealed her status to anybody. According to her, the Kenyan elections turned her world upside down.

Medical authorities at Nairobi Women Hospital say more than 300 women were raped during the post-election violence.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

When Radio Netherlands informed Amina about the presence of the Chief Prosecutor of The International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo in Nairobi, Amina sighed in relief. But she was soon heartbroken to learn that Moreno Ocampo has categorically stated after his first press briefing on Saturday that he will deal only with the “big fish” – those who bear the most responsibility in fanning the violencehome hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

“I am here in Kenya illegally because my country is unstable. If the International Court can not heal my wounds and bring those who raped me and other women to book, I have little hope that local courts in Kenya will deliver me justice”.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

Mr Moreno Ocampo is viewed by many Kenyans as the only hope to see those responsible for the infamous post-election crisis in the country punished. Moreno Ocampo has assured the public that Kenya’s case will serve as an example. He further asked the government of Kenya to protect witnesses who agree to give evidence.

Meanwhile, Amina says she will rather go back to Mogadishu than stay in Kenya during the 2012 general election.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

The common reason they give is that the man cannot leave them for someone else after infecting them with HIV.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

Agnes Banda’s story may somehow be different but she says when she was getting divorced, her husband told her not to mention that she was HIV positive – a move she says disadvantaged her.

Banda, 39, and a teacher at one of the schools in Lusaka says she got married in 2002.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

“We started co-habiting in 2000 when I was still in Western Province and in 2002, that’s when we got married officially. Before we got married there was a time I came to visit him from Kaoma and I found some capsules in one of the pockets of his clothes. I wasn’t familiar with them so I later asked him what they were for. He told me that he had some genital rashes, an STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection) and he was prescribed the medicine,” she says. “He went on to say that before he could take the capsules, he consulted another nurse and she said it was just a mere rash but I still wasn’t convinced, but we got married anyway.”home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

She says in 2004, her husband got very sick and lost a lot of weight.

“He was just like a moving skeleton. He used to have night sweats and at that time, he was doing nothing so I had to run around and look for money. He had insisted on going to the hospital alone. So I went for work and when I came back. he said ‘Aggie banipeza nili HIV positive’ (Aggie, they have found me HIV positive) but I think after seeing the fear in me, he withdrew the statement and said ‘Mwandi bani chita chabe advise kuyenda kupimisa VCT’ (no they have just advised me to go for VCT voluntary counsellig testing). home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kitSo I asked him if he had done VCT. He said ‘no’, then I asked why, the response I got was that because of his illness his immunity was low and could have mistook that for HIV. So he said that he would go when he got better. He was put on medication and he got better,” she says.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

Banda says when her husband recovered, she reminded him to go for a test but he refused, saying that the virus could not survive in his blood.

“That was a wake-up call for me but I was scared I couldn’t go alone because I was thinking how I could receive the news if I was found positive. I feared to say if I go there and I am found positive, he could have accused me of infidelity. So life continued and I lived in fear,” she says.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

She says in October, 2006, fate caught up with her and she started feeling sick.
“It was during the elections and I was feeling like I had malaria. My legs were painful, very painful. I used to sit on the table verifying results and after I got money from the elections, I used it all on medication,” she says.

Banda says while she was sick, her husband left her and went to Malawi to do business.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

She says while he was in Malawi, her illness progressed and her health deteriorated.

“Even after using all the money, I started going to other clinics even government clinics but all in vain. Then one day I just thought of going to UTH, without a referral. The doctor saw me and saw the seriousness of my illness. He asked for a close relative since I had just gone there with a friend. At the hospital, they said there was need for either for a mother or husband to come,” she says.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

Banda says since her husband was out of the country, she called her mother who found her critically ill.

She says her mother told her to tell the husband to come back from Malawi.

“He came back with some money which he spent on me and I appreciate that but after trying this and that nothing worked or improved until one day a certain doctor at UTH decided for me and the family. I was in no decision making position. I couldn’t walk. I was being lifted around and I believe that God spoke through that doctor,” she says.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

Banda says the doctor decided that she does an HIV test because all the tests were done and nothing came out.

She says the test was done and it came out positive.

“I thank God that the test was done because if it was not for that, I would have been gone and forgotten. When the test was done, the CD4 count was initially low, it was 135. So I was immediately put on ARVs and within the shortest period of time, I started recovering,” she says.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

Banda says when she started getting better, her husband started complaining about the money he had used on her.

“I thought he was giving me money out of love and he talked about it until it became a thorn in the bush. He complained that couldn’t I have gotten sick for a short time and gotten better. I couldn’t bear this any more so, I had to find a way to get back the money he spent on me which he accepted,” she says.

Banda says she got a loan and gave him K3 million and upon giving him the money, he told her that she should not expect him to buy anything at home or pay the rent until he declares profits.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

Banda says things were not easy for her as she had to cope with her HIV status as well.

“I discovered immune boosters in his pockets… then the bank was deducting money from me and I was given full responsibility of the home. This went on for months and even before I could finish the loan…I had a lot of debts because of the loan, he said that we divorce,” she says.

She says her husband told her that he could not continue with her and if he had to build a house, her relatives would grab the house thinking they had used her money.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

“So that’s how we got divorced on 10th May 2008. On September 3, I took him to court and we got divorced officially but unfortunately, I wasn’t open about my status. I wasn’t open because I wasn’t counselled. We did not have any children together,” she says.

Banda says her husband was not supposed to divorce her because she tested positive in his home.

She suspected that her husband might have known because he was taking boosters.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

“Maybe if I had mentioned that I was positive at the time in court, the court could have told him to be maintaining me. He told me not to mention in the courts that I was positive. He brought me from Kaoma to Lusaka where life is expensive. I need help. I need a house and I am finding it difficult to work. My husband refused to go for a test because he used to say that it’s voluntary so he could not be forced,” she says.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

Banda says she told her relatives about her status but he never mentioned anything to his.

She says at that time, she felt rejected and a misfit and that no one counted her as a person.

Banda says she used to feel as if people knew about her status.

“I received counselling from call centres and I accepted my status and I now talk about it openly. My CD4 count is now 820 as of January this year and I thank God for that. But I think he knew about his status and even when I was sick, he refused to go and get tested saying it was voluntary and that he would do it at his own time,” she says.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

She says she has now come to terms with her status and has accepted it.

Banda says she even has a club at the school where she teaches but finds it difficult to talk to the teachers.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

According to Johns Hopkins researcher Charlotte Gaydos, DrPH, participants had no trouble distinguishing between positive and negative results.

Nearly all participants said they would “definitely or probably recommend” self-testing to a friend and would “probably or definitely” perform a test at home if it were available, Dr. Gaydos remarked in an article on WebMD. With further study, she went on to say, home testing for HIV might one day be as routine as pregnancy testing.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

“Rapid HIV testing works by detecting antibodies against HIV, just like the kits used by health care workers for routine HIV testing,” says Larry Siebert, CEO of Chembio Diagnostics. Siebert went on to note that rapid, point-of-care (POC) tests such as those his company develops are single test cartridges, similar to pregnancy tests, that use a small sample of oral fluid or whole blood and deliver a visual result in approximately 20 minutes–and one may serve as a viable at-home HIV test.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit

“The hope for this test is that it can help identify those HIV-positive individuals who are unaware of their status and motivate them to seek immediate medical attention and early treatment,” says Siebert.