The HIV/AIDS Deadlock!
By Fitsum G.
June 20, 2006
Ever since HIV was known to have crossed our border without being invited, and has been allowed to be invade every part of our land, not excluding the remotest of localities, we have been talking about it heatedly. In two decades, many names, connotations have been attributed to it as have been declared the multiple ways of its contagion, its essence, its manifestations, its cycle etc. The media and the public in general have been dealing with it, and lately millions of dollars have been pumped to projects that have some association with the anti HIV campaign. So much so that many unscrupulous people have been using the so called HIV Global Fund and the like for not so transparent and accountable ends. Youth clubs that deal with HIV have been formed in thousands and the sensitization campaign is to say the least remarkable.Despite all this, however, the results are grim! There are still people not willing and ready to talk about this problem unless it is considered as some one else’s problem, some one else’s worry, the consequences of some one else’s behaviour. Not ours! Or not of someone whom we love most either. And yet, if we don’t want to be champions of hypocrisy, or we don’t want to cheat ourselves, we should be ready to admit that every day, a member of our close circle, (a family member, a relative, a friend, a colleague, a neighbour) has fallen victim of its contagion. She or he has even died of HIV! And children are orphaned continuously. But we insist ‘they died of TB, Malaria, Dysentery, Gastritis.....
Furthermore, the symptoms of HIV are by now being seen unequivocally clearly to every one. No mysteries. They have manifested themselves on so many subjects, in so many occasions and repeatedly, that only a deliberately blinded eye would refuse to notice them, a deliberately deafened ear would fail to listen to its clarion call! Why then hide behind a finger? Why sweep the dirt under the carpet?! It is futile to try to deny its glaring existence, searching for ways and means of justification, look for elegant terms, imaginative pretexts, ‘dressed expressions’, euphemisms. We have noted even doctors who go to a painful extent, perhaps beyond what their professional ethics would allow them to do, to avoid inflicting any ‘disappointment’ on their clients or families they are close to, not stating what they see! How long can we continue to deceive ourselves with such ‘attitude’,‘culture’? Isn’t it time that a spade be called a spade?!
The point we must make should however, be one and only one: HIV is a huge reality and a tragic one! We like it or not, it has intruded in our midst to become a part of our lives. We like it or not, it is killing us by the millions. We like or not, it has devastated our otherwise intimate relationship, and is bound to exterminate our secretive habits. We have no alternatives other than learning how to live with it! Take this ferocious bull by the horns, and try and neutralize its ever more devastating impact. Or else we would be sitting peacefully on a time bomb! We cannot face HIV by hiding behind a finger. We must be frank to ourselves and sincere to others. Once the elderly used to say: “any one who hides their sickness cannot find therapy and cure.” This is for sure! The point to make is: every one who is in the risk area of HIV, i.e. every one who could possibly be susceptible of contracting or carrying the virus (due to any factor: age, conditions and manners of life, conduct/behaviour, vices, friendships, accidents, sickness with blood transfusion etc) should be strongly advised to know their HIV status! Why so many masks and veils? And then and only then, should or can we conduct a relatively tranquil, and peaceful life. In sickness, the therapy between an HIV positive person and that of a negative one is bound to differ, as does their level of immunity. And I guess the subsequent reaction to treatment would also vary.
Why then do people always feel reluctant to be tested, clear themselves from doubts, if any? HIV campaigners recommend it, and the sooner the better. There are ads on TV, newspapers, placards in public squares, even songs that counsel us what to do. But the number of people who come forward to test themselves is still insignificant, compared to the high estimate of people susceptible of contracting the virus. For instance, surveys have shown, no matter how small, that in many high schools in Addis the prevalence of HIV is embarrassingly high; and with alcohol and ‘chat’ (mild narcotic leaf to chew) very popular among the youth, the tendency to forget that HIV even exists is expanding, with corresponding rises in infection rates!
Awareness, consciousness, attitude towards people who declare their sero status, are cited as obstacles. The examples of Bogalech, Zewdu, Tadesse Ayinalem, and others are admirable. These people voluntarily declared their HIV positive status, to warn others, winning over stigma. Others have followed them, but not enough! Doctors say the life span of an HIV positive person can greatly increase if adequate measures are taken in due time. They also teach that stigma against HIV positive people should be combatted, or no one will dare come over and declare their status. Why? Because stigma is a terrible social ill that erodes and disrupts the social life of the individual and pushes her/him to further discrimination, isolation and despair. Stigma kills slowly, where as love, care, compassion and understanding do have a high healing and treatment value and power. That is why our actions against stigma should be resolute, united and coordinated, or there will hardly be any end to the HIV cycle! The spread will continue unabated, underground, in silence.
Why don’t we take the examples of former presidents of S. Africa, (Mandela) and Zambia, (Kaunda) and former Inkata Chief (Buthelezi), who all courageously admitted and declared that their children died of HIV, openly? No one forced them to make such ‘scandalous declaration’; and perhaps their family members might have disapproved of that, resorting to the old anecdote: ‘Dirty linen should be washed in family’! But these people are role models to society, modern day heroes. Heroes are not only those who fall in battleground. Sacrificing one’s personal glory and comfort for the sake of such noble causes as the crusade against HIV can be a new form of heroism! Saving others’ lives is definitely heroism.
There are no limits to the ‘beware signals’, against HIV! Even intimate family details could be allowed to transpire if it serves to save lives. And these are really in millions! I was disappointed by the negative response listeners of FM Addis 97.1 gave when the other day the producer Dagmawi Tariku was asking on the phone: ‘whom should you tell of your HIV positive status? To no one, many said! And yet it is silence that has brought us to current levels of dissemination of the virus! Such attitude has developed because of fear of hostility, stigma, ostracization, in society! This is evidence that concerning the HIV crisis, we still have a lot to do. We have an immense mountain to climb! But we should not despair and must continue in our battle against this 21st century pandemic.