Testing for HIV | Pushkar's Diary

I'm in Lesotho, the mountain kingdom in southern Africa with the highest low point in the world. But people here don't know where Nepal or even Mt Everest is.

Lesotho is a tiny country surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. Only two million people live here and the population is declining due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It's estimated that one in every three people here are infected with HIV.

You don't see many men in the villages. Most of them go to South Africa to work in the mines, returning only occasionally to Lesotho to visit their families. That's how the deadly HIV virus has spread. The ravages of HIV/AIDS has left multitudes of orphan survivors to be raised by grand parents or in some cases, live alone and unsupervised. You don't have to go too far to find hungry people. Anytime, anywhere, they ask for whatever you have in your hand.

People of Lesotho are called Basotho. It is summer here in the southern hemisphere, around 32 degrees, but the Basothos wear blankets, woollen hats and leather jackets. It is an odd sight for visitors like me who sweat like pigs in such weather.

Some days ago, I went with a friend, Elizabeth, to the remote mountain village of Menkhoaneng on a community outreach project funded by Population Services International (PSI), an NGO. Villagers came to visit the mobile clinic, set up for HIV/AIDS voluntary tests and counselling. While waiting for the pre-testing educational session to begin, the people began singing and dancing. I played Jhyamma Jyamma on my MP3 for them and they liked it, some even tried to sing it.

Two PSI counsellors sat in separate classrooms. I was invited to watch a counselling and testing session. The test is very simple: they prick your finger and place a drop of blood on two test strips. The result is out in three minutes. The client is asked a number of questions for data collection but everything is confidential and no names are recorded. A negative result is indicated by a line that appears on the test strips, two horizontal lines means positive. The test I saw was thankfully negative. The client was counselled on the importance of maintaining the negative status. Around 30 villagers were tested, six results were HIV positive. Free condoms were distributed to all visitors.

Elizabeth also took me to a clinic at the government hospital where the patients are treated on an outpatient basis for HIV/AIDS and where ARV (Anti Retroviral) drugs are distributed. People were lying under trees, sleeping everywhere on the hospital ground while waiting for medical attention. I helped Elizabeth process her patients by recording their names. There were 22 of them, all of whom had tested HIV positive after lab tests. At the end of the day, I tested for HIV. Only one line showed on the test strips. Negative.

Peace,
Pushkar
Maseru, Lesotho