My name is Sarah. I am 32 years old and I am a single Parent of one child. I discovered I was HIV positive six years ago and since that time I have been living positively. I would like to share my opinions on how I feel HIV infected people should interact in different societies because I believe that they have a very big role to play in every society, and that is to help others know and appreciate that any one can be HIV positive regardless of their race, religion, sex and so on. By now I expect many people to know that one can not get infected with the HIV virus just by associating with someone who is infected.
This makes me wonder why some of the people living with HIV can’t come out in the open and be known. In my opinion, nothing should be confidential about someone’s HIV status especially if we are to work toward fighting stigma and discrimination. It all begins with you as a person who is infected. If you think being HIV positive is unacceptable and you decide to keep quiet about it for fear that if people knew then they would stigmatize or discriminate against you, then they will take it your way. Similarly, if you come out and make them understand that anyone could be HIV positive and that there is really nothing wrong with associating with people living with HIV, you will help them go by that.
If we are going to tell people that HIV is just like any other disease, then surely we must stop treating it any different from the way we look at other killer diseases such as Diabetes, High / Low Blood Pressure, Cancer and Hepatitis. People suffering from these diseases don’t hide. We see them going to clinics for their therapies and no one stays away from them because people know that they can not be infected by the mentioned diseases just by greeting, eating or being found in the same room with a patient of the same except for hepatitis which is contagious. But even then people suffering from Hepatitis will get treated without being discriminated but preventive measures are taken. My point is, for as long as many people living with HIV fail to accept (Living in denial) to a point of not wanting to discuss it with others, then we might as well forget about eradicating it. It is this kind of attitude that leads to new infections. If I met a someone today and went into having a sexual relationship with them without mentioning my HIV status, its obvious that at some point they will feel that they know me well enough to have unprotected sex with me, hence contracting the virus. Much as we preach about the use of condoms, people still want to have unprotected sex. However, if we helped them by disclosing our status, I don’t think they will be too stupid and careless about contracting the virus. If anything, I think they will be encouraged to go for an HIV test themselves, and depending on the results, they could choose to stick to you if they too are positive and you encourage each other on living positively. The same way, they can decide to move on and five a partner that is negative like them if they are not infected.
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