HIV testing - Is it any use?

In today's papers, the govt has decided to test all expectant mothers for HIV, unless they opt out of it. The bottomline is that if you're a pregnant mother, the doctor will automatically test you for HIV unless you specifically opt out of it.

My question is: So what?

Does this really curb the spread of HIV in Singapore? Testing expectant mothers who are HIV-infected and their HIV-infected offspring can only tell you how many new HIV cases there are each year, a statistic which is already being collected.

The difference is that now, they get the chance to screw up a potential life before it has even begun.

Think about it: Assuming you're sway enuff to get HIV-infected and you become pregnant. ( I'm working under the assumption that you weren't aware that you were HIV-infected before you became pregnant ) The government tests you, and you find out that you are, and that ultimately so is your yet-unborn child.

Now, what does the government want to do about you?

No, let's rephrase: What CAN they do about you, AND your child?

Can they prevent you from having another child? Can they sterilise you then and there if the doctor finds out you have HIV, in order to prevent you spreading the virus? Can they monitor you day and night to make sure you don't sleep with other healthy men? Most importantly, can they pay for your cocktail of drugs to keep you alive for a few more years?

The problem here is, the answer to most of the above questions is either a NO or a HARD TO ACCOMPLISH. So in other words, even if they find out you have HIV, they can't do anything about the situation, besides warn you about it, and advise you against taking any other lovers.

And worse still: They would have planted you and your child with the stigma of AIDS-sufferers for the rest of your lives.

Your child would know, from the day that he was born, that he is suffering from HIV and live with that, for however little years he has left.

Is that fair to the child? Was he the one who slept around? Was he asking to be infected? No, he was just a innocent little lump with the misfortune to be created in his mother's infected ovaries.

Wat's the point of this entry? My main point is to say that there is NO REAL HELP that can be given with this latest testing measure. At best, it's a massive information-gathering move.

But if you are an expectant mother, who's just found out that you are infected with HIV and so is your child, there is no help or comfort that comes with this information.

If they wanna curb the spread of HIV that badly, let's see some more constructive measures to do so.