I have AIDS...you can hug me, it's okay...
Read The Star 5sep '06 and you will find a piece of very disturbing news. A HIV positive woman in India had to abort her own child because hospital stall refused to touch her for fear of being transmitted with AIDS.
She says "They had no sympathy for me as I had to pull out the foetus with my hands and clean myself as health workers guided me from a distance. They read about my HIV status and threw medicines from a distance"
When I read it, I was outraged more than anything else. Hospital staff, Doctors? Nurses? Aren't they the supposedly well educated group who know very well how HIV transfers? How can anything like that still be happening in this day and age? We're building skyscrapers and fancy schmancy gadgets when in our backyard, all this is taking place? It's ridiculous. And that's India. I can tell you that this stigma continues to surround Malaysians.
When I was in Cambodia, I remember meeting this one lady, Veesna. She has 2 young sons of her own. She works for an NGO and barely earns a living. 
But I'll never forget her, because Veesna and her husband took it upon themselves to adopt a HIV positive girl who was abandoned by her parents. Veesna might not be as educated as most people, and she might not know how AIDS spread. But she sure knows that AIDS kill...you may say it is out of her ignorance. But Veesna loves that child just as her own. I saw them hugging and playing together. That sight really pierced my heart. How many of us can love like that?
But I'll never forget her, because Veesna and her husband took it upon themselves to adopt a HIV positive girl who was abandoned by her parents. Veesna might not be as educated as most people, and she might not know how AIDS spread. But she sure knows that AIDS kill...you may say it is out of her ignorance. But Veesna loves that child just as her own. I saw them hugging and playing together. That sight really pierced my heart. How many of us can love like that?Now, let's have a HIV crash course with Lisa.
Seven ways you will NOT be infected with HIV:
- Being bitten by a mosquito or other bugs, being bitten by an animal.
- Eating food handled, prepared or served by somebody who is HIV positive.
- Sharing toilets, telephones or clothing.
- Sharing forks, spoons, knives, or drinking glasses.
- Touching, hugging or kissing a person who is HIV positive.
- Attending school, church, restaurants, shopping malls or other public places where there are HIV-positive people.
- HIV cannot be transmitted though urine, feces, vomit, or sweat. It is present, but only in negligible quantities, in tears and blister fluid. It is present in minute amounts in saliva in a very small number of people.
So lets not be ignorant and stupid. Lets be a little more smart...
posted by lisathetan @ 8:40 AM
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