It is a terminal disease. No vaccine, no medicine but could be avoided when everyone gets proper education. Each of us will be safe from the virus and thus refrain from stigmatizing the victims. This will offer a better chance of victory in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This article by SIMON MKINA, explains further.
“Uwii…ooh my God…why have you taken his life so early, even before he starts assisting us his parents. We placed all our future on him and we had spent every cent we could afford towards his education but today he is no more… God, why have you done this, you surely could have taken us first before taking my child…” Such were the bitter words of the maternal parent of Basingi Brown, a young man who died at the tender age of 22 years.
Basingi, affectionately known as Double B died of diseases accompanying AIDS – tuberculosis and continuous diarrhea that attacked him persistently. The youth had just completed his first degree at the university and was awaiting results of his application to pursue a second degree course at a university outside the country.
His father, mother, brothers and sisters, friends and relatives wept bitterly during and after the death although some were shedding hypocritical tears because they stigmatized him when he became sick.
Stigmatization of the young man followed his bold decision to announce through the mass media that he was infected with the virus that causes AIDS. After making the announcement many of his relatives avoided him even those who depended on him for some possible assistance, accusing him to have humiliated and disgraced the family in the eyes of the surrounding community by such an action.
Double B saw no valid reason for not doing so for he thought he could no longer keep secret of the disease that troubled him after the doctors confirmed that he was infected with the virus. He took the decision believing that he would be in a better position to offer his contribution towards the fight against the pandemic announced by the government to be a national catastrophe.
Before announcing his condition, Double B explained to his parents and other close relatives that he was confident they would give him the necessary assistance taking into account his current health situation. “I came to tell you about my health situation… I think it best to tell the society about my plight that I am infected with the HIV virus and I don’t have any good reason to hide the truth that my blood if infected,” he sadly told his relatives.
“I ask you to give me moral and material support. I know you have educated me by depriving yourselves until I obtained a degree from the university.…” While narrating his ordeal he suddenly broke into painful tears but his parents stopped him by telling him that- “all along we knew you are infected with the virus but we did not worry because that was not the end of life and it is good that you have come to a wise conclusion to openly tell society of your condition with the bigger aim of helping others,” they assured him.
After obtaining such courageous assurance from his parents he thought at last there was no obstacle in his responsibility to provide HIV/AIDS education to society. But it did not happen as he expected for after announcing his condition to the mass media, friends, some relatives and neighbors who were earlier so close to him started to avoid him saying he was wrong in humiliating and disgracing his parents by going open.
Wherever he went people who knew him pointed at him avoiding his company. Those who previously visited him frequently stopped their visits and even those who sat with him at the table to eat avoided him giving many excuses. His closest friends who at some occasions were used to a mutual exchange of clothes never turned up to collect what belonged to them notwithstanding how expensive they were.
These negative attitudes from his close friends, relatives and acquaintances greatly saddened him to the extent of regretting his decision to tell society about his condition. He became perpetually unhappy, started losing weight and finally was attacked by ailments like diarrhea and later tuberculosis.
It is through stigmatization, the condition of Double B continued to deteriorate every day and was hospitalized for examination and treatment. When he was admitted into hospital the stigmatization process continued unabated for only a few relatives visited him. He died six days after admission into hospital.
It is true that Double B would not have died so soon had his relatives, friends and acquaintances not stigmatized him with such cruelty and openly because of his ailing condition. It is quite clear that HIV/AIDS infection is not the end of living if such idea is implanted within the minds of a wider society and supported by highway adverts and the mass media.
It is also true that AIDS, like all other diseases, kills if not properly managed. And the fact that there is no vaccination for AIDS, but as the war against its eradication is on it is improper to employ messages like AIDS kills, AIDS is death and similar such jingles amid the great campaign to contain the epidemic.
Death frightens. Who is ready to follow death on his own volition…particularly death from AIDS?
It is through this ignorance that many people still think the virus is propagated through touching, eating together or sharing a seat in a bus or train. Still, the fear that contracting the virus is definite death is full in the minds of the greater section of society. Who will agree to be near a person who might be dead tomorrow?
Who is ready to rub shoulders with a person he is quite sure will die the next day notwithstanding the open truth that all human beings are expecting death? They are very few!
Scaring adverts from the mass media–and even institutions given the responsibility to combat the epidemic directly, as well as absence of proper education fills heads of AIDS infected victims who consequently become insensitive to making declarations of their HIV status. Infected persons thus get the idea that declaring oneself means seeking a license to scare your friends, to be avoided by relatives, a situation that is regrettably painful and which robs one’s freedom to live happily.
Statistics of the World Health Organization shows that out of every 10 persons with the HIV virus in African countries south of the Sahara, Tanzania being among them, four are being stigmatized by relatives, friends and neighbors. The statistics indicate that Tanzania which has 2 million infected persons has 90,000 sick ones who face the stigmatization process from their relatives when disabled in bed or when having the symptoms of the disease.
Apart from urging people not to indulge in acts that invite infections, Tanzania Government officials have also often stressed that being infected is not a death sentence.
Former Tanzania Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye once said if a person is infected and finds out early through the medical personnel, he can live longer if he follows the rules of living with hope and society should refrain from stigmatizing this person.
If the community that surrounded Double B had been educated on the ways the virus infects persons, it would not have stigmatized and hastened his death. The death of that young man has robbed the community chances of benefiting from him, first from his university education and also from his contribution in assisting society to combat HIV/AIDS which can also infect them. AIDS does not discriminate but people do.
If and when everyone refrains from stigmatizing HIV infected patients, Tanzania will have built a beautiful beach of people educated to destroy the epidemic. The country will be an example to youths and the whole society where everyone wears a cloak of intelligence and righteous conduct instead of having uneducated heads that stigmatize compatriots.
A person who is infected with the virus and similarly the uninfected, all have equal rights to stay alive and being infected must never be seen as a certificate for death but to happiness as usual. Society should maintain the usual peace and love without stigmatization.