the TALE of the testers

When women test, what happens? Well the answers, according to the North Middlesex Hospital’s survey were, largely, positive ones.

In fact, when the results of the survey were presented at the Glasgow HIV Conference last November, “Disclosure, Discordance and Decisions - the Psychosocial Impact of Antenatal HIV Testing” actually won a prize for the best poster presentation. The organisers were impressed by this study that combined hard info on a poorly-researched subject with a glimpse of the very human stories behind the figures.
“We were struck by the number of heterosexual HIV positive patients we had who had steady HIV negative partners (including two pos men with neg women partners). It made us think more about the emotional, psychological and social impact of testing upon our pregnant women patients.”
This is study author Dr Chris Wood talking. Rumpled, bearded Chris is consultant at the North Middlesex Hospital in Enfield, north London. The patient group at the HIV clinic there is one of the most multi-ethnic and multi-sexual in the UK, and is in the top three when it comes to patients of African origin.
“We did have reservations about publishing the results, though,” Chris adds. “The last thing we want to do is scare women off testing.”Hopefully, the study will have the opposite effect. The bare

facts are these. 59 pregnant women tested HIV positive at the North Middlesex between 1999 and 2002. All but 11 of them apparently acquired their infection in Africa, and only five were infected in the UK.