AIDS test in Baghdad

An AIDS test is something all foreigners are supposed to take within 10 days of entering Iraq to obtain an arrival stamp in their passport.
This rule was often overlooked in the past because a trip to a Baghdad hospital for such a test meant possible kidnap or death at the hands of militiamen. 
Now, however, with violence dramatically down and Government institutions working more normally, going to see a nurse to give a blood sample is not such a crazy notion, from a safety perspective. Hygiene-wise, I'm not so sure.
I went to a local hospital yesterday to face the dreaded needle. I hate injections in the most comfortable of locations. The al-Alwiya Hospital was something else.
Walking in off the street to a bloc of the building that specializes in blood, it was immediately clear that there was minimal electricity.
The small entrance hall was dark and dirty, with steps zigzagging upstairs. A couple of elevators on one wall appeared to have been out of action for a while.
Gingerly climbing up the stairs to the third floor, I was told that the doctor who handles foreigners’ blood was running late so “would I sit in the waiting room”.
This comprised a sorry line of chairs in the corridor. A dustbin in one corner overflowed with empty cans of fizzy drink. A thin meshing covered the windows, which hung open on rusty hinges, letting in a cold draft.
A tatty-looking poster warning people about the perils of smoking hung from one wall, while a couple of feet away a make-shift snack stall on a rickety table sold packets of cigarettes as well as piles of biscuits, sweets and nuts.
Hospitals across Iraq suffered from decades of neglect during Saddam Hussein’s regime. Many fell into further disrepair in the chaos that followed the US-led invasion in 2003.

Equipment, even basic medicine, is in short supply, while power is a luxury. But Iraqi doctors and nurses are experts at making the most out of what they have.

After about 45 minutes the blood doctor turned up, unlocked his office and opened for business.
I was first in line followed by an Iraqi woman from Denmark and a Muslim woman whose nationality I didn’t catch.
An old, male nurse behind a white screen took the blood samples using (I saw to my relief) a stash of sterile needles.
Unsure what to expect, I sat in the patient’s chair and rolled up one sleeve.
The nurse tied a green piece of frayed elastic around the top of my right arm to make the veins stick out. As he reached for the needle, however, I asked whether he was going to put on a pair of surgical gloves.
“No” came the reply.
I expressed that in England nurses wear gloves when they take blood samples.
“Oh, okay,” said the nurse, communicating through my driver who was with me and speaks a little English.
He stuck on a pair of baggy, see-through plastic gloves that were several sizes too big for his hands and turned to look at me again, this time with needle poised.
Before jabbing the metal into my arm, the nurse said in broken English and with a sudden note of concern: “There is lots of AIDS in England”.
As I left the little room, rubbing my arm, it slowly dawned on me that I was the person everyone had been worried about contracting something from rather than the other way round.

[Picture 1: Amulance at Medical City in Baghdad in 2007;
Picture 2: Woman and tiny baby at Medical City in Baghdad in 2007;
Picture 3: The bruise on my arm after AIDS test]

Comments

[Frustrated]

Hi love your blog but please please use U.K. or Britain not England,as a non nationalist Welshman I felt left out I am not English but you were refering to OUR country,thanks I've had my rant now I feel a lot better so I'll go back on my perch

[P Smythg]

Deborah, do you have any update on the Kurdish Christian with a medical problem you reported on about a year ago? Thanks.