[afro-nets] To minimize HIV/AIDS stigmatization

[Enamul Haque MD <ehaque85@hotmail.com>]

To minimize HIV/AIDS stigmatization
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These days we are concerned about stigma of HIV in society and
trying to address this problem in different way. But to my un-
derstanding, certain conditions still prevail which create prob-
lems to address this issue properly.

* Some countries' health awareness advertisements erroneously
show HIV/AIDS as synonym of death sentence, which is not true in
the year 2003. In this decade of potent Anti-retroviral drugs
and WHO's special initiative to provide antiretroviral to devel-
oping countries, soon HIV infection will be proved as chroni-
cally manageable disease, no longer a death sentence. If people
start to believe HIV as death sentence through any government or
NGO message, stigmatization in society will never decrease in
spite of human rights/ anti stigmatization campaigns.

* A number of countries have made visa application difficult for
HIV infected people. For job, some country needs declaration
from job applicants as HIV free and do not want to admit people
in country for long time if HIV positive, thus make job search
difficult for otherwise eligible migrant or skilled workers.
Economic costs of this in an impoverished society may be much
more in terms of stable family life, food and health for HIV
positive people.

I earnestly believe world leaders, UN, donor agencies and all
national government (specially from developed western countries)
can take bold steps to address the above-mentioned issues on hu-
manitarian ground thereby help to minimize stigmatization and
marginalization of these already helpless people in this era of
globalization.

Enamul Haque
Bangladesh
mailto:ehaque85@hotmail.com