Women's acceptability and husband's support of rapid HIV testing of pregnant wom

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Title: Women's acceptability and husband's support of rapid HIV

testing of pregnant women in India

Author(s): A. V. Shankar ; H. Pisal ; O. Patil ; A. Joshi ; N.

Suryavanshi ; A. Shrotri ; K. E. Bharucha ; P. Bulakh ; M. A.

Phadke ; R. C. Bollinger ; J. Sastry

Source: AIDS Care Volume: 15 Number: 6 Page: 871 -- 874

Publisher: & Francis Health Sciences

Abstract: This study examined acceptability among pregnant women and

their husbands for HIV testing within the antenatal clinic (ANC) and

delivery room (DR) of a government hospital in Pune, India from

September 2000 to November 2001. Acceptance of HIV counselling and

testing was high with 83% of eligible women in the antenatal clinic

(851 of 1025) and 68% of eligible women in the delivery room (417 of

613) getting tested on the same day. Structured interviews were

conducted on 94 pregnant women in the ANC 50 women in the DR, and 100

husbands who accompanied their wives in the ANC.

These data indicated that the majority of women agreed to be tested

independently without the need for further consultation with family

members, a view that was strongly supported in this sub-sample of

accompanying husbands. For delivering women who were not progressing

in their labour, counselling in the DR allowed for individual

attention to questions and concerns thereby making counselling in the

DR feasible.