Stigma associated with AIDS very strong in Japan
July 2005 News-Medical.Net
Although Japan may well be one of the world's most affluent, well-educated and developed nations, as yet it is also the only such country where AIDS cases have not dropped dramatically.
According to AIDS activists at an international conference about AIDS in the Asia-Pacific, held in the western city of Kobe, prejudice against the disease and its sufferers is partly to blame.
The Japanese government as yet has not made AIDS a major political cause, which has been the case in other Asian nations, such as Thailand, where an AIDS policy is carried out by several ministries, rather than being centrally coordinated.
At present AIDS education in Japanese schools is minimal and is treated solely as a medical problem.
This attitude reflects widespread taboos about openly discussing sex and this is in direct contrast to Japan's booming pornography industry.
There were 1,165 new HIV/AIDS cases reported in 2004 in Japan, which is the highest annual figure yet, and more than a tenth of all reported cases have been since 1985, and experts warn that the figure could climb to 50,000 by 2010.
Official apathy is blamed for much of Japan's situation.
Eleven years ago, just after a young Japanese woman had just given birth to her first baby, her husband was diagnosed with AIDS, and she found out she was HIV-positive.
Her diagnosis and that of her husband, who died six months later, were a complete shock.
Testing methods at that time meant it was 18 months before she found out whether her daughter, whom she had breast-fed for nearly two months, had been infected as well.
Fortunately the child was free of the virus.
Today the stigma against people like her in Japan is such that she will not reveal her name, her age, or allow her picture to be taken, because her job, her daughter’s school life and her relationship with her neighbours would be jeopardised.
Many fear what might happen if their HIV status was known and that prevents people from being tested, much less treated, which means many may be HIV-positive without knowing it.
Despite living in the world's second-largest economy, with access to life-saving drugs, many feel their existence is at best grudgingly accepted by the very government whose health care system helps keep them alive.
In Japan apparently the majority of the population believes AIDS to be a disease afflicting only foreigners, sex workers, gays, and people who indulge in risky sexual practices.
At hospitals people are required to give their names, and while public health centres offer anonymous testing, their hours are extremely limited and results can take a week.
To remain healthy, the woman takes several drugs each day at a cost of 50,000 yen ($450) a month, which is partly covered by government insurance.
All her expenses could be covered by a government programme but that would mean revealing her HIV status to officials in the small central Japanese town where she lives.
The open-ness of her Asian counterparts about their HIV status at the AIDS conference had inspired her to speak out about her situation for the first time.
Online at: www.news-medical.net/?id=11497
Source: Stigma-AIDS eForum
Although Japan may well be one of the world's most affluent, well-educated and developed nations, as yet it is also the only such country where AIDS cases have not dropped dramatically.
According to AIDS activists at an international conference about AIDS in the Asia-Pacific, held in the western city of Kobe, prejudice against the disease and its sufferers is partly to blame.
The Japanese government as yet has not made AIDS a major political cause, which has been the case in other Asian nations, such as Thailand, where an AIDS policy is carried out by several ministries, rather than being centrally coordinated.
At present AIDS education in Japanese schools is minimal and is treated solely as a medical problem.
This attitude reflects widespread taboos about openly discussing sex and this is in direct contrast to Japan's booming pornography industry.
There were 1,165 new HIV/AIDS cases reported in 2004 in Japan, which is the highest annual figure yet, and more than a tenth of all reported cases have been since 1985, and experts warn that the figure could climb to 50,000 by 2010.
Official apathy is blamed for much of Japan's situation.
Eleven years ago, just after a young Japanese woman had just given birth to her first baby, her husband was diagnosed with AIDS, and she found out she was HIV-positive.
Her diagnosis and that of her husband, who died six months later, were a complete shock.
Testing methods at that time meant it was 18 months before she found out whether her daughter, whom she had breast-fed for nearly two months, had been infected as well.
Fortunately the child was free of the virus.
Today the stigma against people like her in Japan is such that she will not reveal her name, her age, or allow her picture to be taken, because her job, her daughter’s school life and her relationship with her neighbours would be jeopardised.
Many fear what might happen if their HIV status was known and that prevents people from being tested, much less treated, which means many may be HIV-positive without knowing it.
Despite living in the world's second-largest economy, with access to life-saving drugs, many feel their existence is at best grudgingly accepted by the very government whose health care system helps keep them alive.
In Japan apparently the majority of the population believes AIDS to be a disease afflicting only foreigners, sex workers, gays, and people who indulge in risky sexual practices.
At hospitals people are required to give their names, and while public health centres offer anonymous testing, their hours are extremely limited and results can take a week.
To remain healthy, the woman takes several drugs each day at a cost of 50,000 yen ($450) a month, which is partly covered by government insurance.
All her expenses could be covered by a government programme but that would mean revealing her HIV status to officials in the small central Japanese town where she lives.
The open-ness of her Asian counterparts about their HIV status at the AIDS conference had inspired her to speak out about her situation for the first time.
Online at: www.news-medical.net/?id=11497
Source: Stigma-AIDS eForum
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 6:22 pm
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