Emily's Worldview

One of the Wise Old Guys of public health, who addressed us early in our first year, reminded us to always see "the faces behind the graphs". I was crunching numbers just now and got one, .208, that made me pause. For the average woman who attends antenatal care at one of the nearby district hospitals, who is 25 years old and 27 weeks pregnant, who is thinking about the new life inside of her, and the changes in life ahead of her, who agrees to a simple HIV test in addition to her height, weight, and blood pressure, who sits across from the white-suited nurse and waits for the test results to show, that is the probability of receiving a death sentence, the probability that the drop of blood from her fingertip will turn the test positive. The calculator clicked, and I saw her face.