Home
Last month, a Dallas jury sentenced an HIV-positive man to 35 years in prison for spitting in a police officer’s face. The jury described his saliva as a “deadly weapon”.
Jessica Kim (2nd from left), who wrote this article for AIDSfreeAFRICA and her friends, all students from SUNY Buffalo. This is her second in a series of articles on HIV and Stigma.
It should be a fact by now that HIV is not transmitted by saliva, sweat, urine, or tears. The only thing more disturbing is that the man reportedly used HIV as a threat to scare the officer. The article goes on to say that this may “undermine proven public health policies that combat HIV and AIDS”. I can almost picture it in my mind; some readers of the news headline “Man with HIV is sent to jail for spitting at cop” will now have no doubt in their mind that you could get HIV through saliva. In addition, it depicts people living with HIV as potential villains, intentionally infecting people. Similar questions are brought up by those living in Western New York, who remember Nushawn Williams .
It is not to say that all people living with HIV are responsible about their status, nor that it is solely the responsibility of the infected to be educated about HIV. Since HIV can be spread through sexual activity, a social behavior practiced by most if not all people, shouldn’t everyone know about HIV/AIDS? There are many who are empowered to take control of their health because they have access to medical care and support. So we are left with the unaware, the poor, the stigmatized, and others without access.
We can take Brazil as a model for its impressive reaction to HIV. The swift uptake of prevention campaigns, legal rights for people with HIV, as well as universal access to locally produced drugs, has resulted in half of the number of projected infections in 2000 and savings of an estimated US$1.1 billion in AIDS-related hospitalizations. While continuing to protect people from infection, we must empower the ones who already are infected. Brazil’s model has laid the foundation for the missions of organizations such as AIDSfreeAFRICA. By providing universal access to drugs through building local production capacity, including getting the drugs to the people, the model Brazil gave to the world may work equally in Africa.
RSS 
If I may add a story I heard about an HIV situation in Lebanon:
In a small village in the south where my friend lives, a person was diagnosed with HIV and he had to live inside a room in his parents house where almost most people would talk to him behind a closed door. At first even his parents would slid the food ’s plate to him to avoid contact.
Although promoting awareness concerning HIV and the people with HIV is making a progress helping people understand the disease, for a such civilized country, Lebanon is are way far behind.