South Africans loath to be tested for HIV/AIDS

By Benita van Eyssen Dec 1, 2005, 0:28 GMT

Johannesburg - Pressed for the reason he has declined to be tested for HIV/AIDS, Mayosa whips out his mobile phone and shows an image of himself receiving fellatio.

'I don't need to take the test because I'm safe. I only let the girls give me blowjobs. This is all I want. I don't want to get AIDS,' the aspiring young South African musician says in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

He and four friends, all in their early twenties, have stopped to enquire about the services of New Start, a voluntary counselling and testing facility housed in four blue tents at Park Station in downtown Johannesburg.

Deckchairs, a reception desk with information pamphlets and mobile laboratory equipment have been set up for the occasion.

About half a dozen employees of the U.S.-funded outreach initiative managed by the non-profit Society for Family Health (SFH), are on hand to invite members of the public to undergo free testing.

New Start was launched in South Africa a year ago, prompted by a survey that showed only 19 per cent of South Africans know whether or not they are HIV-positive, despite the more than five million known to be infected with the virus.

More than 1,600 clients have since availed of New Start's voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) at its three urban centres and mobile clinics.

The initiative, which includes a referral service for those who test positive, particularly targets seemingly healthy single men and couples.

'In general people do not get tested because they don't think they are at risk. They do the test when they are sick,' says SFH's VCT technical advisor Scott Billy in an interview with dpa.

'It may also be a case of not being tested because they are afraid that someone may use the information against them,' he says.

VCT programme manager, Miriam Mhazo, says New Start is intended as a complimentary service in a country with an overstretched healthcare system and where HIV/AIDS treatment is seriously lacking.

'We are trying to not give anyone an excuse not to be tested,' she says adding that South Africans slowly appeared to viewing HIV/AIDS testing in a more positive light.

In South Africa, SFH is best known for its work in HIV/AIDS prevention, which includes distributing condoms and campaigning among residents in low income communities.

New Stream has also received requests to conduct tests on behalf of health authorities and the private sector in the last year, according to Mhazo.

Medzodzi, 22, is the only one of the group of five at Park Station who agrees to be tested and sprints off, grinning, for his session.

His friends meanwhile discuss their sexual exploits and ambitions to make it on the country's hip hop and kwaito (township music) scenes.

The first client to give blood, a 47-year-old father of five, become known to staff at the facility as '2441'.

SFH officials say market research conducted before the launch of the initiative indicated that South Africans worry about the strong stigma surrounding AIDS.

Fears range from being seen taking an AIDS test at a local clinic to testing positive for the deadly disease and denial despite sexual promiscuity.

Two girls, no older than 15 and dressed in school uniforms, arrive at the reception desk, prompting a shift in the conversation to the sexual habits of school pupils. <!--page-->

'These days it is from 13 years and upwards that a person is no longer a virgin,' Mayosa explains.

In the 15 minutes it take for his results to come through, Medzodzi contemplates life as an AIDS sufferer.

Like many in South Africa, his family has first-hand experience of the disease.

'There were five that were infected. Two are gone and we have three left,' he says. 'I know how they are living and I know that I will get support from the family if I am infected with AIDS,' he says.

He and his friends agree that contracting AIDS has overtaken their fears of getting a girl pregnant.

'I have two children already. One is two years and the other eighteen months,' Medzodzi reveals before being called for his results.

'I'm scared. I'm shaky. But I want to,' a potential client tells a a New Start counsellor.

He assures her the entire process will take 45 minutes, that she will known her AIDS status at the end of it, and that no-one needs to know her real name - but she mumbles an excuse and leaves.

Medzodzi emerges shortly afterwards. When his friends ask about the results of his test, he announces that everything is 'sharp', slang for fine, but he appears to have lost his appetite. He doesn't touch the loaf of bread he insisted they buy while he was being tested.