For the past two years, 46664 and HIV-counselling and testing organisation New Start have provided free HIV testing facilities at the Soweto Festival, in Soweto, South Africa.
In both 2008 and 2009, 46664 and New Start were pleased to see hundreds of people get tested for HIV during the festival, which takes place in September every year.
Facilitated by 46664 and run by New Start, the free testing process allows visitors at the festival to get tested and counselled confidentially. In the first 15 minutes, individuals go through a thorough pre-counselling session with expert facilitators, then on to the actual blood test (no more than a pinprick to the finger) and then, about 10 minutes later, they are informed of their results and appropriately counselled.
In 2009, 441 people went for testing between Thursday 24 September and Sunday 27 September. Of those, seven left after pre-counselling and did not go for testing. Of the 434 people who got tested, 181 were men and 253 were women; 10 men tested HIV-positive, while 19 women were HIV-positive.
New Start senior counsellor Zandi Zulu says that there are both positives and negatives to be taken out of the data.
On a positive note, of the 441 people who went for testing, only seven decided not to actually get tested after receiving pre-counselling.
“Basically, before you get tested you go for pre-counselling with one of our trained counsellors,” explains Zulu. “During that pre-counselling session the counsellor speaks to you about what your reaction will be if you test positive.
“If you’re going to get tested for HIV, you have to be prepared for whatever result comes out at the end.”
According to Zulu it is a good sign that so few people decided not to get tested, as it means that the majority of people are ready to hear their results.
As for the rest, Zulu says some people go to get tested for the wrong reasons.
“They feel they have to [get tested] because of peer pressure or because they think they should without really knowing what it’s about. Or they go for testing when they don’t really need to, because they don’t really understand when they need to test for HIV. When they go for pre-counselling they finally get the opportunity to talk to someone who knows about the disease privately.
“Some people are not ready for the result. Some of them have never had sex or used dirty needles or had a blood transfusion, but because they don’t understand how the disease is transmitted they think they need to get tested.
“The most important thing about pre-counselling is to make sure that they will be ready to accept the result, irrespective of what it is.”
Worryingly, however, nearly twice as many women tested positive for HIV as men.
“This is something we see everywhere we go,” says Zulu. “Though more women tested than men, which is good as they are a high-risk group, it is still worrying to see so many more women testing positive than men.”
Depending on the information they provided the New Start counsellors, those who tested positive were referred to nearby clinics.
During the four days, 10 people were referred to clinics in the area “to help them understand what they need to do live with the disease”, explains Zulu.