South Africa has the highest prevalence of HIV/Aids compared to any other country in the world with 270 000 HIV-related deaths recorded in 2011.
Many factors contribute to the spread of HIV.
These include:
• Poverty.
• Inequality and social instability.
• High levels of sexually transmitted infections.
• Sexual violence.
• Limited and uneven access to quality medical care.
Why you should get tested
Knowing your HIV status has vital benefits. Firstly, if you are HIV positive, you can take necessary steps before symptoms appear to access treatment, care and support services, thereby potentially prolonging your life for many years.
Secondly, if you know you are infected, you can take all the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of HIV to others.
Thirdly, your healthcare provider may recommend it, for example if you are pregnant and want to protect your unborn child. It may also be recommended by your healthcare provider if you are unwell, in order to obtain a more accurate medical assessment.
Waiting period
Generally, it is recommended that you wait three months after possible exposure before being tested for HIV. Although HIV antibody tests are very sensitive, there is a ‘window period’ of three to 12 weeks, which is the period between infection with HIV and the appearance of detectable antibodies to the virus.
In the case of the most sensitive HIV tests currently recommended, the window period is about three weeks. This period may be longer if less sensitive tests are used. During the window period, people infected with HIV have no antibodies in their blood that can be detected by an HIV test.
However, the person may already have high levels of HIV in their bodily fluids including blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk.
HIV can be passed on to another person during the window period even though an HIV test may not show that you are infected with HIV.
Counselling
Every person who takes an HIV test must receive counselling when their test results are given, regardless of the test result.
Pre-test counselling was a core component of the original voluntary counselling and testing which was designed to assist clients to assess other personal risks and to identify practical strategies to cope with their test results. This model sees counselling and testing as both a primary and secondary prevention strategy. However, in many settings pre-test group information now replaces individualised pre-test counselling.
• Information obtained from www.aids.org.za
