Logo banner
motto		 space
francais sitemap contact us
Print this page • Recommend to a frend

Project Yourself | Sociocultural Context | Testing for HIV

HIV/AIDS - Protection

How to protect yourself against HIV, Hepatitis C and other STDs?

You can adopt no-risk sexual behaviours or without vaginal, anal or oral penetration. You can choose relations that avoid all contacts with blood, sperms and vaginal secretions such as:

  • Kisses
  • Massages
  • Caresses
  • Touch and friction
  • Masturbation
  • Abstinence

To have safe sexual relations, you must use:

  • A latex or polyurethane condom or a feminine condom
  • A condom or a dental preservative for each oral relation
  • Use water based lubricant with latex condoms. Oil based lubricant such as petrolatum can damage the condom and rip it off.

How can you be protected against HIV and Hepatitis C in the African sociocultural context?

Traditional circumcisions and excisions are practiced outside of hospitals by people who are not in the medicine field, and are often practiced with instruments such as knives, razor blades or other non-sterilized cutting tools. Education and awareness are the only ways to encourage the people who are performing these rituals to sterilize their tools with boiling water, and if possible with disinfectant, to minimize the risk of HIV transmission from a person to another. For those who use razor blades, it is recommended to use it only once.

Tattoos and body piercing must also adopt the same sterilization process.

We strongly encourage traditional practitioner to wear latex gloves to minimize the risk of contamination between boys and girls.

Syringe reuse is a common practice in a lot of hospitals in many African countries. For hospitals where professionals do not have access to syringes and needles we recommend following these steps:

  1. Fill the syringe with clean water, shake it for 30 seconds, empty it and repeat several times.
  2. Fill the syringes with bleach, shake it for 30 seconds, empty it and repeat several times.
  3. Fill it again with clean water and repeat the operation, shake it for 30 seconds, empty it and repeat several times.

How and when should you be tested for HIV/AIDS?

Being tested for HIV is something that scares a lot of people because there is no cure at the moment and HIV is often associated to death in many cases. However, if you have a test as soon as possible, your chances of having a treatment by drug absorption are better. These drugs slow down the disease and let you stay healthy longer.

Before passing a test you have certain criteria to meet:

  • People who had non-safe sexual relation, i.e. who had vaginal, anal or oral sexual relations without condom with one or many sexual partners.
  • People exchanging syringes for drugs injection such as heroine, cocaine or steroids must take a test.
  • People who had been circumcised or excised in group with the same non-sterilized tool outside a hospital and in the African tradition.
  • People who had been tattooed on the face or on the body with cutting non-sterilized instruments.
  • People who had had acupuncture treatments with non-sterilized instruments.
  • People who received blood transfusions in countries where blood products are not controlled.

The HIV test is a blood analysis that reveals if you are HIV positive or not. The test is made with a blood sample from an arm vein and the results are given two or three weeks later. There are other means of testing for HIV by saliva, urine; however the blood test is the most reliable due to the high proteins and virus concentration in blood. The HIV test detects the antibodies produced to fight the virus. The antibodies are not detectable in blood during a three to six months period after the infection. If you had sexual relations at risk, you have to wait at least 3 months before taking the test. If you want, you can have another test to confirm six months after the first one.

You can communicate with a health centre or have a test in Canada this way:

  • Anonymously, where your name will stay secret and will not be written in any medical file
  • Nominal, where your name and address are written in the blood sample and the result will be written in your medical record
  • Non nominal, where you will be given a code or your initials, if the test result is positive, your sexual partners will be informed and could be tested too
  • In a public health services centre
  • In a clinic, or a medical centre
  • In a HIV testing clinic
  • In a local AIDS organism
  • On an AIDS phone assistance line
  • From your doctor, nurse or community health worker