Mandatory testing for HIV/AIDS in countries with high infection rates has got support from Bill Clinton, Former US president.
There was a stigma attached to the deadly illness and the lack of treatment for those infected few decades ago and so AIDS testing was frowned upon.According to Clinton, countries where there was no discrimination against people with the illness and where anti-AIDS drugs were available should now consider universal testing.
As told to journalists he said, "I think there needs to be a total rethinking of this testing position in the AIDS community and a real push for this. Now we can save people's lives and we can reduce the stigma. There is no way we are going to reduce the spread of this epidemic without more testing because 90 percent of the people who are HIV positive don't know it.”
Clinton has a foundation which has been working to bring quality medical care and cheaper drugs to sufferers in poor countries, said this year Lesotho would become the first country to do universal testing.
As explained by him, "The whole idea is to treat this as a public health problem, not as some source of shame or disgrace and to keep as many people alive as possible. I would be for whatever accomplishes those objectives.”
He added the question was not whether a country was rich or poor but its infection rate. In his words, "I made up my mind that I would not spend the rest of my life wishing I was still president," he said when asked about his post-presidency projects. Once you let it go, you have got to let it go."
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