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When I was pregnant with my daughter, about a decade ago, I was privileged — or so I thought. 

I could afford a medical aid that paid for a visit to a gynaecologist once a month. I received monthly ultrasound scans, my blood pressure was monitored and my doctor could tell me the sex of my baby three months into my pregnancy. 

But there was a crucial procedure that was never mentioned — or done. 

I was never offered an HIV test. 

Health department guidelines stipulate that all pregnant women — most of us have obviously had unprotected sex and we all have a baby to protect — should be asked to test for HIV.

But it rarely happens in the private sector. 

I’d imagine that my gynaecologist would have argued employed, middle-class women are unlikely to have contracted HIV. 

But she was wrong. 

A recent Epicentre study found that the HIV prevalence rate among employed women in uMgungundlovu in the Kwazulu-Natal midlands, was 13.2% higher than among those without jobs. In the case of men, this difference was about 8%. 

Why? 

Because HIV testing, as well as evidence-based HIV prevention strategies such as medical male circumcision and antiretroviral treatment when used correctly are far more readily available in the public than the private healthcare sector. 

What is more, is that when 25 employers were offered free HIV prevention services for their employees, 24 declined it.

Again: Why? 

In today’s piece, Cherie Cawood, the CEO of Epicentre, answers this question.  

Enjoy this fascinating read. We wish you a wonderful New Year!

Mia Malan 
Editor-in-chief, @miamalan
 
Agenda-setting journalism without firewalls. But we need your help to sustain it. Click here to support our team.
Spreading our wings: Sethu Mbuli is one of three new reporters who have joined Bhekisisa. 
We are thrilled to announce that Sethu Mbuli, a top science journalism student of the University of Stellenbosch's honours journalism class of 2019, joined us today.  

Sethu holds a BSc degree in ocean & atmosphere science and chemistry from the University of Cape Town and will be graduating with a journalism honours degree at Stellenbosch in March.

Sethu has worked as a radio presenter and newsreader for Stellenbosch University's campus radio station, MFM 92.6 and has been a finalist in the Liberty Radio Awards. She was named a Queens Young Leader in 2018 and a News24 Young Mandela of the future in 2019 for her work raising awareness about albinism in South Africa.

Want to know more about Sethu and other Bhekisisa staff members? Read this.

Follow Sethu on Twitter.

Bhekisisa has one more wonderfully talented staff member who joined us this week and in February we'll get one more! We also have an IJ Hub journalism fellow of the investigative journalism organisation, amaBhungane, who joined us in December. Don't miss our upcoming newsletters in which we will be featuring Aisha Abdool Karim, Gopolang Makou and Pascalinah Kabi. 
 
Two things we read elsewhere that made us smarter
"Just because it's been happening for decades doesn't mean it's right." Is it wrong to volunteer at an orphanage? Find out in this NPR story. 

Have you ever wondered if donors tell non-profit media organisations like Bhekisisa what to publish? Not really, this new study found. Rather, foundation funding is often tied with the methods that journalists use for their reporting — foundations, for instance, like funding technology-driven or audience-engagement projects.
Welcome to our new subscribers. Welcome to quality health journalism.

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The Bhekisisa Team
Copyright © 2019 Bhekisisa Development Media NPC. All rights reserved.

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