AIDS activists and health officials in Nigeria are speaking out against a private Christian university’s practice of requiring its students to take HIV and pregnancy tests.
Covenant University, located in Otta, a town near Lagos, began demanding that students take HIV (and pregnancy, if they are women) tests earlier this year, as part of its “Total Man” program—an initiative that seeks to ensure that graduates leave with both high academic and moral standards.
Any female students who are found to be pregnant, and who cannot prove that they are married, face suspension or expulsion. Reports that the university required a negative HIV test for graduation have circulated, though the school’s spokesperson has denied this claim.
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
