I have written a few of articles here in the past about some societal feelings towards our neighbors living with HIV or AIDS. My comments have centered on stereotypes and stigma associated with the disease and those who live with it. I did mention a friend of mine who contracted HIV and who, in the latter stages of his life, was completely abandoned by his own family for being sinful, perhaps.
If any of my articles appeared preachy to you, do not get mad at me yet, for I also had HIV problem. Mine was not the virus but I used to have the same troubled, prejudiced mindset about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and I lived with the destructive and erosive ulcer of my thoughts for years.
As I mentioned in one of my previous articles, I heard about HIV for the first time 1986 and it was in a church, a common avenue in Ghana for the government to disseminate information to the public. The educators were a team of nurses and public health professionals from the Ministry of Health in Ghana sent by the government to tour communities and educate them about the new discovery, HIV. At that time, the information available to the instructors was scanty and only partially accurate. There is no doubt we’ve learned quite a lot about HIV in the past 25 years. The health-care professionals came to sow the seed and it was left to the laymen of the church to continue the campaign in order to keep their flock saved from this evil. I was young, but looking back I am embarrassed by how much misinformation we were fed then and the years that followed.
Week after week and month after month, HIV was presented to us as a disease that affects sinners, and individuals who disobey the Word of God. It was nothing less than God’s retribution to deviant lifestyles and a warning for us to return to God. I imbibed this into my spirit and, for years, I also saw people living with HIV as simply paying for their trespasses. Then I began to ‘grow’ and got to know ordinary people like me who are living more decent lives than I do but who are unfortunate to be living with HIV. The result is that I lay off the childish thoughts (I Corinthians 13.11). There are many who contracted the virus through the ‘sinful’ way we know, and there are many more that got it through the many things we all do in life and take for granted. One of these people is a girl, Elizabeth from South Africa. To cut my story short, I paste here, again, a quote from Elizabeth own words:
“My mother passed away when I was five and my father when I was 10. I have been staying with my grandmother since then. I tested HIV positive in 2008 when I was 16 after being sick for a long time. I developed sores all over my body that wouldn’t heal even after taking medicine. My grandmother and I were always in and out of hospital. I missed a lot of school. At first doctors thought I had diabetes since the sores were not healing.
“After the diabetes test came back negative the doctor recommended an HIV test. At first my grandmother was against the idea but after some time she agreed. I was shocked when the result came back positive because I had never had sex. My grandmother cried too, she was very sad but the doctor explained that I may have been born HIV positive. I was very angry and blamed my parents for giving me this disease. I was immediately put on antiretroviral drugs [ARVs] and my sores healed… I feel very strong and healthy… all I want is to continue helping other people affected and infected by HIV/AIDS in my community.”
Will this change the way you see that friend, family member or neighbor with HIV? I don’t know but I hope it does. It surely changes mine.
