Are AIDS/HIV Sufferers Deserve to be Shunned and Discriminated?

 Analytical Exposition Text

         AIDS is a collection of symptoms and infections caused by the destruction of the human immune system due to the HIV virus. In Indonesia, the AIDS/HIV sufferers called ODHA or Orang Dengan HIV/AIDS. Often, this association is ostracized in society, because there is false understanding of AIDS/HIV transmission. AIDS/HIV transmission can not occur if only by physical contact. So, we shouldn’t afraid , worried and shunned them. They don’t deserve it. 

Firstly, I would like to point out the truth about how AIDS/HIV transmission. Research has shown that HIV is passed on from person to person if infected body fluids (such as blood, semen, vaginal or anal secretions and breast milk) get into your bloodstream. 

 The five main ways this can happen are:

• unprotected sex
• from mother to child during pregnancy, child birh or breastfeeding
• injecting drugs with a needle that has infected blood on it
• infected blood donations or organ transplants
• a healthcare worker who gets the blood of an infected patient inside their body

There are lots of myths about how you can get HIV, and now I would like to point out the truth.

X Touching someone who has HIV

 HIV can’t survive outside of the body so you won’t get HIV from touching someone, hugging them or shaking their hand.

X Sweat, tears, urine or faeces of someone who has HIV

There is no HIV in an infected person’s sweat, tears, urine or faeces. 
X Insects

You cannot get HIV from insects. When an insect (such as a mosquito) bites you it sucks your blood – it does not inject the blood of the last person it bit.

X Air
HIV cannot survive in the air so coughing, sneezing or spitting cannot transmit HIV 
X New or sterilised needles
New needles cannot transmit HIV because they haven’t been in the body of an infected person. If used needles are cleaned and sterilised properly they can’t transmit HIV either.
X Water
HIV can’t survive in water, so you won’t get HIV from swimming pools, baths, shower areas or from drinking water. 
X Toilet seats, tables, door handles, cutlery, sharing towels
HIV doesn’t survive on surfaces, so you can’t get HIV from any of these. 
X Musical instruments
HIV can’t survive on musical instruments. Even if it is an instrument that you play using your mouth, it can’t give you HIV. 
X Kissing
There is such a small amount of HIV in the saliva of an infected person that HIV can’t be passed on from kissing. There is only a risk if you both have large open sores or bleeding gums and blood is exchanged. 
X Tattoos and piercings
There is only a risk if the needle used by the professional has been used in the body of an HIV-infected person and not sterilised afterwards.

Secondly, according to a report from CBS News , In India , Children affected by HIV/AIDS are being discriminated against in education and health services, denied care by orphanages, and pushed onto the streets and into the worst forms of child labor,  Zama Coursen-Neff, the author of the report said. When a parent is infected, children drop out of school to care for them, or go to work to replace the lost income, until they become orphans, she said.

"Many doctors refuse to treat or even touch HIV-positive children," Human Rights Watch said. "Some schools expel or segregate children because they or their parents are HIV-positive." Almost all the girls at the government-funded home have been abandoned by their families after testing positive for HIV, Nair said. AIDS activists say young girls, orphaned after the death of their parents, are often thrown out of their homes and eventually pushed into prostitution. "The discrimination that girls with HIV/AIDS face in the home, community and at the work place has remained largely invisible to government policy makers. There are no programs that focus on their problems," said Kousalya Perisamy of the Positive Women Network, an activist group working in southern Tamil Nadu state.



            The last thing I'll say is AIDS/HIV sufferers are need our attention. Hug, support, and love , that's all they want from us. They need us to encourage them to keep the spirit alive and not be sad  by the conditions they are experiencing right now. And I hope the government can pay more attention for AIDS/HIV sufferers especially in education and economics so, there is no discrimination both in school and workplace.
 

From the reason mentions above, it is unquestionable that AIDS/HIV sufferers don’t deserve to be shunned. They deserve  love and support from people around them.

References :

• https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-social-issues/stigma-discrimination
• NHS Choices (2014) ‘HIV and AIDS – Causes’
• CDC (2015) ‘HIV Transmission’ 
• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/indias-aids-children-shunned/

Claudya N. Nono
XI MIA 1 
SMAN 3 KUPANG , 2017/2018