HIV testing treats me as if I have AIDS

I am applying for a visa to a country that requires HIV testing for applicants.

My husband warned me a few days ago that  the hospital staff would treat me as if I have AIDS.  He was speaking from his experience when he had HIV testing for medical insurance coverage some time ago.   Para daw feeling nya nadidiri na sa kanya, that he could be contagious.

I asked our family doctor to give me a written request that I would show to the laboratory.   He indicated in his letter that the HIV test is for insurance purposes.

When I got to the laboratory,  as soon as the two ladies at the counter found out what I was there for,  they told me I have to undergo counselling.  ????Before my blood would be extracted,  I have to fill up a form and to answer three pages of mandatory questions.  My husband was correct,  they made me feel like there’s a big probability that I could be infected with AIDS.

I was engulfed with emotions,  I could not even express my frustration at how we Filipinos react to things.  We are overacting.

The hospital employees used the word PROTOCOL, required by the Department of Health.

They gave me a form to fill out.  And asked me to wait for someone who will interview me or counsel me.  Counsel me?  For what?   I haven’t had HIV testing yet.  They don’t know if I have AIDS or not.  Why judge me right away and why counsel me,  because it’s a protocol in case my blood test comes out positive?    Just because this woman, OMB,  decided to spend her retirement in an island off the grid with plenty of coconut trees, no  Starbucks,  and that island happened to require long-term visitors to have HIV testing,  doesn’t mean I could be HIV positive!  Oh my buhay!  Overacting naman kayo!

I fully understand and support that we should all be aware of how this HIV virus is transmitted so we don’t get infected.  I am also aware that despite the dangers of AIDS, the number of people in the Philippines that are HIV positive and with full-blown AIDS multiply by the day.

BUT to presume and assume that the person voluntary subjecting herself to a blood test should already be treated as if she was infected and could be infected is insulting. Ang tawag dito guilty before proven innocent.

It was like going to a hospital for a chest x-ray because you have ubo, ubo ubo.  To rule out tuberculosis.  Eh bakit there is no interview prior to the x-ray?  Misis,  nakipag-halikan ka ba sa asawa mo na baka virus carrier?  Kung walang tuberyok ang mister mo,  hindi natin alam kung nakipag-lampungan sya sa isang babae or bakla na merong ubo at TB.  Meron incubation period,  kung lumabas na negative ang chest x-ray mo,  hindi ibig sabihin ay wala kang tuberyok.  Baka hindi pa lang lumalabas.

Here’s the questionnaire:

I find these questions inappropriate, presumptive, and totally offensive.

After I submitted the forms, I was “counselled” by a female, I wasn’t sure if she’s a doctor. I will assume that she’s a doctor.

We were in the smallest room I have ever been to, just enough for the two of us to sit down. Maybe the size of a three seater sofa.

Her first question did not sit well with me. She made me feel like an idiot.
“Saan nakukuha ang HIV?” Lalong uminit ang ulo ko. With so much disgust and irritation, I gave her a nuisance answer. Sex sa bakla, sa tomboy, sa lalaki, sa babae. She knew I was being sarcastic. She added, pwede rin daw sa blood transfusion and needles.

Her second question was “kailan ka huling nakipag-sex?”  “Naulit pa ba?” She made me feel pathetic.    Hindi na ba magkakamali ang asawa ko na ulitin.  Parang kanta ni Gary Valenciano

“Sana’y maulit muli… sana’y bigyan mo ng pansin….. kahapon, bukas, ngayon, tanging wala ng ibang mahal…

Kung kaya kong iwanan ka
‘Di na sana aasa pa
Kung kaya kong umiwas na
‘Di na sana lalapit pa
Kung kaya ko sana…….”

She looked at the form that I filled up, and what she said made me very uncomfortable. She said the HIV virus has an incubation period of 3 to 6 months. “Kung ang inyong mister ay TUMIKIM ng ibang babae na hindi nya alam ay infected at nakikipag talik rin………” TUMIKIM ng ibang babae!!!!
Ano yan leche flan? Patikim nga ng puto kusinta mo.

We Filipinos, despite being well educated, still do things and say things that point to the glaring fact that we are still bekward (backward). Hindi na tayo umabante. My God. Why can’t she say “if your husband had sex with other women…..” Bakit kailangan gamitin kung tumikim sya ng ibang babae. I couldn’t believe that it came from the mouth of a doctor. Ganyan yung mga hindi nakapag-aral, yung nakatira sa squatter. “Ginamit ho ako ng mister ko”. “Tumikim sya ng ibang lalaki.”

In one of the pages, there was a question regarding the highest educational attainment, the person’s job and position, address.  That alone should give them a better perspective of the person who they were speaking with.  The doctor, nurse, or whoever must adjust their approach in conducting the briefing (not counselling).

The counselling was very presumptuous. I was going for an HIV test. The extremely intrusive, personal questions which included how many men and or women I have had sex with in my whole life is, in my opinion, irrelevant at this point.

THEY ONLY NEED TO KNOW THE PROBABLE CAUSE DUE TO SEX EXPOSURES SHOULD THE BLOOD TEST BE FOUND P O S I T I V E. Pero kung bago pa lang magpapa-test, sasabihin na agad, kahit magnegative itong results ko, hindi ako sure dahil 6 months or to a year pa ang incubation period, eh baka ang mister ko ay tumikim ng ibang babae, sa susunod daw na magpa test ako, pwedeng maging positive. Oh my buhay!!!!

Imagine,  kung didibdibin ko ang sinabi,  bubug-bugin ko na itong asawa ko. Aba’y makakatikim talaga sya sa akin. Ipapakarga ko lahat ng gamit nya sa Ranger at ipapadala ko sa Caritas.  If I would take that seriously,  I would lose sleep from worrying that my husband could have infected me,  and he pakekeng another woman / man/ or women.

Parang sa sipon. kahit wala ka pang sipon ngayon na nagpa check up ka sa doctor, bukas pwede kang magka sipon dahil 10 days ang incubation period ng virus. Baka nahawa ka sa mister mo o sa mga kausap mo na uubu-ubo sa mukha mo.

There’s a better way of warning me, without trampling on my dignity.  They were planting the seeds of doubt in my mind.   They were practically insinuating that my husband could have f_cked another woman who f_cked another man, who f_cked another woman or man for that matter.

The questionnaire also asked for the highest educational attainment so she should have adjusted her words, style, and approach, accordingly.

She could have said, “there are certain cases wherein the first test turned out negative but after a few months, the virus could still manifest within the incubation period.”

I tried to control my disgust,  kasi tinarayan ko na silang lahat dun.  Baka mainis sa akin eh gawing positive yung results ko.