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Study: Pregnant African Women Increasingly Avoid HIV Testing

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:15:5

London, England (AHN) - A recent paper in an AIDS journal reveals a large proportion of pregnant Ugandan women are going out of their way not to be HIV tested. By not adopting prevention is the best cure the women are increasing the risk of mother-to-child transmission.

Health officials say mother-to-child transmission of HIV can be easily and cost-effectively prevented using a short course of antiretroviral therapy. However, this is effective only if the mother is willing to be screened for HIV.

The findings the study sheds light on are quite sobering because currently there is an opt-out policy for HIV testing even though the HIV prevalence in Uganda is 6.4 percent.

A study analysis by Faculty of 1000 reveals that a year after the implementation of the opt-out policy, fewer than 60 percent of pregnant women were tested for HIV in 2007 in the majority of countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, the exception being Botswana where voluntary counseling and subsequent testing rates are higher.

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