Authorities in Swaziland want to subject the entire Swazi population to an HIV/AIDS screening test. Those eventually found to be HIV positive would then receive antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). It is an ambitious project involving various donors including the Dutch organization, Stop Aids Now! But is it possible to test an entire population?
Prospects
Nearly 200,000 of Swaziland’s 1.2 million inhabitants are HIV positive, which makes the southern African country the world record holder for HIV prevalence. Moreover, many Swazis have never been tested for HIV before. The number of people living with the virus that causes AIDS could thus be much higher.
HIV/ AIDS expert, Joep de Lange, from the University of Amsterdam, is among the supporters of the project.
According to him, the screening test could lower the prevalence of the pandemic to one percent of the Swazi population. But he remains cautious: “You cannot force people to use ARVs. Continuous monitoring is necessary. But it is a promising strategy in the fight against the pandemic”.
Possible or impossible?
Is it really possible to conduct a screening test on such a scale? Swaziland is one of the smallest countries in Africa, stretching over 200km from North to South and 130km from East to West. Only people above the age of 15 will be tested. A monumental task indeed, but not an impossible one according to local authorities.
Dutchman Ton Vriend has been living in Swaziland since 1976. He has been involved in numerous health projects and is skeptical as regards the feasibility of such a campaign. “I don’t think it is possible to provide drugs to all patients. Moreover, a checkup will only be possible in cities, where the clinics are, and people living in rural areas cannot generally afford to get there”.
Used condoms
Swaziland has some experience when it comes to large scale screening tests. Part of the population has already been tested in various rural areas such as the areas around sugar cane plantations.
Unlike many other African countries, HIV/AIDS is no longer taboo in Swaziland. However, according to Vriend, a there is still a lot to be done with regard to protection measures against the virus.
Vriend: “In the cities, condoms are widely available. However, in remotes areas, people sometimes have to walk for several kilometers to acquire them and sometimes they are already used. People here have a different kind of sexuality”.
Swaziland would nevertheless make history, as no other country has ever subjected its entire population to an HIV screening test.
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This is not health care - it's genocide, because the antiviral drugs will kill them. The same is true for vaccination programmes in both developed and developing nations. These things are culling devices disguised as public health care.
While we're clearing up confusion propagated by HIV/AIDS denialists, one commentator on this article is puzzled about how to reconcile HIV prevalence estimates of 17% and 26%.
The answer is that the 26% figure is the estimated adult prevalence (the percentage of adults aged between 15 and 49 with the infection) while the 17% figure is the estimated prevalence across the whole population - including children and older adults who are less likely to have HIV than people aged 15-49.
"the screening test could lower the prevalence of the pandemic to one percent of the Swazi population"
Here the article seems to be confusing "prevalence" (which is the number of people living with HIV) with annual "incidence", (which is the number of new infections per year).
Screening and treating will not dramatically reduce prevalence and may in fact increase it as more people end up living with HIV/AIDS rather than dying from it. This is of course a good thing. However screening and treating could significantly reduce incidence because people with effectively treated HIV/AIDS are less likely to pass it on.
Sorry for might sound like a nit-pick, but internet HIV/AIDS denialists have already seized on the confusion.
How come we the Swazi populance do not know about this rubbish being talked about here. Where has the standard of journalism gone to when you report propaganda thats not true and call it news. Africa is no play ground for cheap politics and this is really annoying and insulting to us.
typical Dutch government, needs to be the saviors of humanity, instead they have chosen to be the morticians of Swaziland... HIV testing, notoriously inaccurate especially using Western Blot and off course ELISA that tests for antibodies only.... need we say even more. Rather empower the Swaziland people to care for themselves, help with herbal garden, fruit and vegetable garden, they need food not vaccinations and ARV. Are ARVs going to combat malnutrition, they bigger fools than I thought they were...
"The ''HIV'' hypothesis ranks with the 'bad air' theory for malaria and the 'bacterial infection' theory of beriberi and pellagra [caused by nutritional deficiencies]. It is a hoax that became a scam." - -- Dr. Bernard Forscher, former editor of the U.S. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences (Sunday Times (London) 3 April 1994)
"The HIV hypothesis ranks with the 'bad air' theory for malaria and the 'bacterial infection' theory of beriberi and pellagra [caused by nutritional deficiencies]. It is a hoax that became a scam." - -- Dr. Bernard Forscher, former editor of the U.S. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences (Sunday Times (London) 3 April 1994)
personally I think the whole HIV/Aids thing is a big fraud! Yes the swazis are habitually unhealthy with poor immune systems but they should be getting taught/encouraged to eat healthy insted of toxic ARv's...Angry
im working in one of the NGOs here and i think its very possible...its better to know than not to know...
If Swaziland tests everyone, what then? They appear to be suffering from a shortage of ARV drugs and they are not the only country:
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-06-28-arv-shortage-in-swaziland-a-death-sen...
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