I know my status! Do you?

In a country with an estimated 21% HIV prevalence and in a region with 37% HIV prevalence in pregnant women pretty much every 3rd person is HIV positive. Every day we interview children who have been orphaned by AIDS, are caring for somebody ill with AIDS or both. Everybody here is affected by AIDS in one way or the other. Unfortunately, stigma remains high and people are scared to disclose their status or even get tested. Only about 30% of the population have been tested and ARV (antiretroviral treatment) uptake is currently at 37% of those in need nationally.  

And who can blame them. Today we took a 16 year old child whom we had interviewed in the past week for testing. His mother is severely ill with AIDS and was luckily not afraid to disclose her status to her children. As the clinic is about 20min by car from his house we gave him a lift. 

The clinic was set in a compound with a huge iron fence and with extra security. When we told the nurse what we wanted she ushered us away from the waiting room and into a room that looked more like a broom cupboard. To show the boy that testing is not scary the research assistant and myself went first. I got an HIV counsellor and a room that was even worse than the cupboard with a bed with stained sheets. She sat me down on a chair that was barely able to carry its own weight and explained what HIV was and how one can get it. She then explained the test which pretty much works like a pregnancy test. Your finger gets pricked, the blood is moved onto the testing stick you wait for 5 minutes - one line is good, two lines means you're positive. 

The counsellor put everything in it's wrapper on the dirty sheet while explaining to me how it is done. She then went ahead to prick my finger without sterilizing it first and then squeezed the blood out of it. When I asked her whether she doesn't usually wear gloves when doing this she said: Oh, I sometimes forget! 

I have no words! All I can say is, the kid tested negative and that is what matters.