First off, this is a great blog. Probably because it comes from actual experience. I am a researcher who has worked on SRH and HIV/AIDS issues in Orissa in the last few months, and have, therefore, interacted with many of the people who are particularly vulnerable and active targets of stigma and discrimination.
What the hell, I face stigma when I talk about meeting these people !
Let's face it, we are all sexual beings. We like sex, we have sex, we discuss sex, but we still think of it as a bad part of ourselves. Therein lies the problem where PLHAs are concerned. They must have done something bad for them to be infected today..... that is the thinking. So they need to be reminded of that fact. Over and over so that the point hits home.
It's not their positive status that is terrifying to us, but the reminder that we all have been 'bad' at some point. It is our self-loathing, or at least our non-acceptance of our sexual selves that lead to us stigmatising others for the large part.
OK, so it is our prerogative to have opinions about others. But it cannot be a prerogative to discriminate, actually convert the thought into an action. An action which can and often does demean and decimate another, who, in the first place, is already under attack.
On another note, let's talk about the mind=body connect. PLHAs are already ill physically. What they need is large doses of tender loving care, just the same as any other ill person does. What they actually get is a constant reminder that they are a walking disease, someone whose life is already over. How does that feel, I wonder. I hope I never have to find out.
Rejection is the worst feeling in the world. I know that, and so does everybody else. Let's not forget that.

Atitude of medical staff and doctors to HIV positive patients

As a doctor I have also observed the extreme insensitivity of medical staff, doctors included towards HIV positive people. Rarely are they helped or any health assisstance provided. In many cases in the laboratories where the testing has been done and a positive result returned the reports is put up for all to see. Also, within the hospital the staff spread the word as regards the HIV status of the person. As a result he/she is ostracised and his/her immediate health problem ignored. This is not confined to private institutions but is also prevalent in Government hospitals. For the sake of maintaining form some may put the report in an envelope and then spread the word orally. In many cases doctors do not even touch the patient. The law as regards confidentiality of status, even the ethics about the confidentiality is conveniently ignored. If this the state of affairs amongst doctor community then it becomes pointless to point fingers at lay persons for their atitude. Whereas, from what I have read during the course of my medical studies Hepatitis B virus is radically more infective, psreads in the same manner and equally difficult to eradicate but many medical personnel blithely ignore this fact and treat and operate on a Hepatitis B virus infected person. Working in laboratory, dealing with blood products i am certainly more scared of Hepatitis B than HIV because of the former's higher infectivity.
I think it is time to radically educate medical personnel as regards HIV so that they can change their atitude which lay persons can imitate. Some thing akin to what was done in the 60's and 70's with regards to tuberculosis and leprosy.
Educating lay people is okay but it will far productive to educate medical personnel and bring about a change in their atitude.
Enacting laws is not enough for enforcing them is very difficult. but changing atitude is definitely more productive in the long run.

P.S - the virus for common cold is extremly contagious but has anybody seen people taking the elementary precaution of washing their hands to prevent its spread.

Media insensitivity

on 29 December in a vernacular daily in Orissa in the front page a photograph of a family, with the following caption was published:

"Father Mother & their two children suffering from AIDS".

What bothered all of us was that each and every detail of where he lived, what he did, and how he got himself infected with the virus is detailed out in that column.
In Orissa past experience with HIV/AIDS has been horrible.
I remember there was an incidence in Ganjam (a high prevalent district), where a young mother, whose husband died of AIDS related disease was tied to her cot and burnt by the villagers, a young man who had died of AIDS was not given a decent cremation because of his HIV status. These are some of the common incidence that have been regularly occurring in Orissa. One needs to question media as to whether these kinds of sensational news will aggravate the situation or not, whether they have maintained all the norms (e.g taking permission from the family (written permission) before publishing this human interest story, Whether consequences of such kind of publication has been discussed with the family, has confidentiality been taken into account while writing about how, what action of his resulted in him being a HIV+.
I am presuming that no such initiative has been taken before exposing the family to discrimination. I do hope individuals and community members come together to address media insensitivity which harms the common man and exposes them to discrimination.

STIGMA & DISCRIMINATION

In a recent meeting, held in Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar on 27 December, on stigma and discrimination, a PLHIV member brought up the issue that in most of the prescriptions provided in the column of diseases the Medical Officer of that hospital write AIDS, this has resulted in discrimination as the nurses and the pharmacists mistreat them, the Medical Officer gave an explanation that he had certain moral responsibility towards other DOctors as the patient would never reveal his HIV status. The Participants straight away protested and argued with the Doctor, what about the rights of the patient, does the patient not have any rights.

Though the Doctor did not have any reply to that but he persisted in his belief. Rather the Medical Officer justified and stated that discrimination happens in every field and every issues and tried to trivialize this particular serious issue of concern of people being discriminated on the basis of their HIV status.

What can be done to change the attitude of Doctors; are we doing enough to change their attitude; are our training programmes adequate ; are we taught enough by our parents, teachers and elders about respecting life and human beings in general; I think these are questions that one should be constantly asking own self as well friends, families, loved ones enough.