Bernadette Rwegera : "Women need information, not mandatory testing"

Bernadette Rwegera founded Maison Ikambere to provide a meeting place for HIV positive African and Maghrebi women in Paris. MAHA talked to her about a recent report, inspired by the U.S. model, which proposes to make HIV testing mandatory for pregnant women and about the current, illegal practice of uninformed, non-consensual HIV testing.

"The first problem is : do the doctors propose the test ? My impression is that not only is the test not proposed, but it is imposed on women.

"One doctor even told a woman that most African women are HIV positive. We have the impression that African immigration is being "conjugated" with AIDS. I don’t believe this. People are more vulnerable to HIV because of the precarious social and economic conditions they live in in France.

"HIV testing is simply included in the list of routine exams. As if HIV was a disease like any other, as if HIV didn’t have serious psychological and social consequences.

"The waiting period is anguishing for everyone, whether HIV positive or negative. If a woman learns she is HIV positive, it becomes very serious, she has not been prepared to receive this news, often announced brutally. Does she understand, for example, the difference between HIV and AIDS ? Women need more information, not mandatory testing.

"Of course the sooner a woman knows about her health, the better. So that if she is pregnant, she can protect herself, protect her child, to give him the chance to be born HIV negative.

"We have to take the time explain to a woman the consequences, the advantages of knowing early on that one has HIV. But you must leave the choice to the woman, of what she wants to do with her life. Making the test mandatory is no solution.

"If a woman is not psychologically prepared to stand the shock of discovering she is HIV positive, it can destroy her physically - not only psychologically - and this can even make medical treatment less effective, and less important for her."