HIV In A Bottle?

There has been a pretty big controversy in Zambia since last week. The Minister of Health announced that HIV virus has been found in bottles of the contraceptive injection Depo Provera made by an American company. He said the product has been pulled from the market until further notice.

This news really delivered a blow to a country with the world’s sixth highest rate of HIV infection and among the highest birth rates. Among the women in rural areas, many of whom have minimal education, it seems that they are destined to live a life of bearing one child after another, regardless of their ability to raise them. They are thus trapped in a life of crushing poverty. Contraception is at least one way to help them break out of this life; and Depo Provera is the only contraception that can be administered by health workers with minimal medical skills to a scattered rural population. It doesn’t require the women to remember to take a pill every day; it doesn’t require cooperation from the men; and it only needs to be given every three months.

With this hasty announcement from the Minister of Health, I am sure the drive for birth control will suffer a severe setback. The sensationalism surrounding it alone is enough to make people wary of receiving injections of any kind. Why were they looking for the virus in Depo anyway? How did the suspicion come about? How likely is the HIV virus to be able to survive in a contraceptive solution? Was it really the virus itself that has been found? Has it been confirmed? None of these questions were answered, just an announcement without any explanation. So, you can just feel the knee-jerk reactions going around the country.

During the morning handover, one nurse’s knee-jerk reaction was particularly high. She proclaimed that “we should all just use the natural methods for contraception!” Upon prodding for elaboration, she offered, “the withdrawal method, the calendar method, and lactational contraception.” Her earnest and emotional reaction, along with her advice, was met with stifled chuckles from the rest of the staff. If an educated person has this kind of reaction to the news, just imagine what the uneducated villagers would think.

I will keep my eyes peeled to see how this controversy develops.