HIV/AIDS and the stigma
By, The Tide Online, January 28, 2008
People living with HIV/AIDS are humans and so should be treated as such. Most times I ponder if malaria is not a killer disease that kills every passing minute of the day. People prefer mingling with those suffering from malaria than those with HIV/AIDS not just a disease like every other?
The number of souls lost through malaria cannot be juxtaposed against that of HIV/AIDS.
Everybody needs love and care whether healthy, infected with malaria parasite or HIV/AIDS virus. The amount of love and care shown to a sick person helps the person psychologically and even physically to fight the disease and to have a quick recovery or even a positive mental attitude towards his situation.
Treating people with HIV/AIDS as outcast is not the best. We do not need to discriminate. They ought to be seen as our neighbours and not seen as the “man next door”.
It is a fact that sleeping in the same room with someone that has HIV/AIDS is not a means of contacting the disease not eating from the same plate with them. The actual means of contacting this so much dreaded disease is mostly overlooked. People have forgotten that HIV/AIDS is transferred through the use and sharing of unsterilised sharp objects like needles, blades and shaving sticks, transfusion of unscreened blood and indulging in what is called “casual sex” without the use of condom.
The fact that man always thinks that evil can only befall his neighbour and not himself has not stopped the unimaginable from happening. Most youths proudly beat their chest and say “I cannot be HIV positive. While they still sow their “wild oats”
HIV is not all about personality that is the way one sees oneself but it is how one is able to control oneself.
Campaigns all over the country have fallen on deaf ears. One of the ills that can befall a nation is ill-health. The HIV epidemic needs the corporations of all and sundry to fight the disease and not sitting to stigmatise.
Regrettably, some of the people that take stigmatisation seriously are HIV positive themselves. Though they have not gone for a test.
Even when HIV/AIDS test is carried out free of charge in our government hospitals now, the fear of the unknown and stigmatisation has restricted a lot of people from queuing for the test at the centres where the test is available.
The provision of Anti-Retroviral Drugs (ARD) to ease the attack of the disease on the white blood cells and the immune system has gone a long way to helping HIV victims live a normal life.
The earlier a person becomes aware that he is a carrier of the disease, the better it is for the person because he receives the medical and psychological treatments available and learns how to cope.
Surprisingly, some victims are shown the door at their place of work because they were able to open up about their status. Some whose status are negative but mistakenly swaped with a positive person’s result are innocently stigmatised. Iragunima is an intern with The Tide.
Source: http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=01/28/2008&qrTitle=HIV/AIDS%20and%20the%20stigma&qrColumn=OPINION
People living with HIV/AIDS are humans and so should be treated as such. Most times I ponder if malaria is not a killer disease that kills every passing minute of the day. People prefer mingling with those suffering from malaria than those with HIV/AIDS not just a disease like every other?
The number of souls lost through malaria cannot be juxtaposed against that of HIV/AIDS.
Everybody needs love and care whether healthy, infected with malaria parasite or HIV/AIDS virus. The amount of love and care shown to a sick person helps the person psychologically and even physically to fight the disease and to have a quick recovery or even a positive mental attitude towards his situation.
Treating people with HIV/AIDS as outcast is not the best. We do not need to discriminate. They ought to be seen as our neighbours and not seen as the “man next door”.
It is a fact that sleeping in the same room with someone that has HIV/AIDS is not a means of contacting the disease not eating from the same plate with them. The actual means of contacting this so much dreaded disease is mostly overlooked. People have forgotten that HIV/AIDS is transferred through the use and sharing of unsterilised sharp objects like needles, blades and shaving sticks, transfusion of unscreened blood and indulging in what is called “casual sex” without the use of condom.
The fact that man always thinks that evil can only befall his neighbour and not himself has not stopped the unimaginable from happening. Most youths proudly beat their chest and say “I cannot be HIV positive. While they still sow their “wild oats”
HIV is not all about personality that is the way one sees oneself but it is how one is able to control oneself.
Campaigns all over the country have fallen on deaf ears. One of the ills that can befall a nation is ill-health. The HIV epidemic needs the corporations of all and sundry to fight the disease and not sitting to stigmatise.
Regrettably, some of the people that take stigmatisation seriously are HIV positive themselves. Though they have not gone for a test.
Even when HIV/AIDS test is carried out free of charge in our government hospitals now, the fear of the unknown and stigmatisation has restricted a lot of people from queuing for the test at the centres where the test is available.
The provision of Anti-Retroviral Drugs (ARD) to ease the attack of the disease on the white blood cells and the immune system has gone a long way to helping HIV victims live a normal life.
The earlier a person becomes aware that he is a carrier of the disease, the better it is for the person because he receives the medical and psychological treatments available and learns how to cope.
Surprisingly, some victims are shown the door at their place of work because they were able to open up about their status. Some whose status are negative but mistakenly swaped with a positive person’s result are innocently stigmatised. Iragunima is an intern with The Tide.
Source: http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=01/28/2008&qrTitle=HIV/AIDS%20and%20the%20stigma&qrColumn=OPINION
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 3:08 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home