Paper long abstract:

In the context of the current protocols surrounding VCT, this paper documents the changing responses to AIDS over a period of ten years in a rural area in Kenya. Most research on AIDS has concentrated on the dilemmas of those suffering from the disease. Stigma is frequently the focus of discussion. This research followed a different strategy and canvassed opinion in Kuria families who did not know their HIV status. The demand for testing rather than stigma emerged as the dominant theme. Along with the spread of HIV, Kuria have noted a sharp rise in new kinds of witchcraft and identify two separate fatal illnesses; one AIDS and the other due to a particular form of witchcraft. Since only one of these is taken as sexually transmissible, testing has particular importance in order to determine which is which. Well aware of the risks of HIV cutting a swathe through the community, people expressed a strong demand for mass universal testing as the only way by which this silent sexually transmitted disease can be identified and measures taken for the protection of the community. Local medics refuse to cooperate because the protocols surrounding testing would make such action 'unethical' and even illegal. While communities are asking for a public health approach, the authorities charged with controlling the epidemic still rely on a human rights approach which privileges the rights of the infected individuals over those (as yet) uninfected.