Why it is prohibited to approach?, AIDS patients

BY: Jehad Albabily

Translated and Edited by: Tawfiq Alnadhif

SANA'A, March 10 (Saba)- They prevented me to enter a mosque to
pray, said an infected with AIDS, with mournful voice, tears
shedding on his white beard and his old face.

This AIDS patient, 60, was affected due to blood transfusion. His
words are powerful expression of the affected people sufferings from
humiliation and discrimination behavior by society around, which
impact is more painful than the impacts of the AIDS virus (HIV)
infection.

The disease of the AIDS epidemic, which affects more than 40 million
people worldwide, is a virus damages the immune system after
infection with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and represents the
most advanced stages of HIV and it incapacitate the body to resist
any disease, regardless of the lack of simple and known AIDS /HIV.

The virus spreads in all the infected body fluids of different
density and is spread only through blood, unprotected sexual
intercourse and through the mother breast milk.

National statistics indicate that the infection rate in Yemen is
below 1 per cent, and the number of the infected people is not known
exactly due to the absence of reliable data and the lack of
epidemiological monitoring system.

Confidentiality and the difficulty of survey:

Not to find some AIDS patients and to persuade them to tell their
suffering stories with the community is not an easy thing due to the
confidentiality and the extreme caution they are living in.

The following lines narrated by some AIDS patients who depict part
of the sufferings they are living in.

The first Suffering:

The suffering story began when he underwent a medical surgery due to
an illness after he passed sixty. He needed a blood transfusion by
one of his relatives (who was an immigrant in a neighboring country)
and discovered later that he had infected with the AIDS virus.

"The infection news has spread among the people of the village who
prevent me to enter the mosque for prayer as they feared of the
virus transmission to them," the old man said.

The second Suffering:

Another patient said that his village seniors had decided to expel
him and his wife from the village to a cave in a mountain.

" My wife died because of the community injustice and brutality
which she was suffering from. The cause of her death was not the
infection with the virus because science has proven that a virus
carrier could live for a long time, possibly 20 years," he added.

The third Suffering:

This patient said that his sons prevented him to live with them in
his own house. "They denied me and took my five-story house and kept
me in a shop (a small room), without any care. They were throwing me
food from a hole under the door, in brief they treated me like a
homeless animal", he said in painful words.

The fourth Suffering:

Another patient narrates his story with the discrimination and
sufferings that he and his wife met from the society, particularly
medical staff, who have sworn to provide health care for all
patients without discrimination.

He summarized the story as saying: "Three hospitals refused to help
his wife give birth to a baby who was infected with HIV."

"I was confused where to go with my wife, who is in a critical
condition, is it my fault I told the medical team that my wife is
affected with HIV", he said.

"Then I went to another hospital and not briefed them about the
medical status of my wife, everything went ok then I got out with my
wife and child. Of course, my behavior will turn to an aggressive
and preventable behavior and I will try to transfer the disease to
members of the community.

The fifth Suffering:

The head of AIDS Patients Association Abu Ali (AIDS Patient)
describes the community's treatment with AIDS patients as a very bad
one.

Abu Ali said that some people who live with him refuse shake hand
with him, pointing out that he and his colleagues decided to
establish the Association as a cry against the bad treatment and
discrimination they receive from the community, as well as providing
full support and backing the new AIDS patients who conceal their
infection because of their fear of the bad treatment of the
community.

"The Association works to change the misconceptions of the AIDS
patients until it is accepted and recognized that AIDS is a chronic
disease does not cause any risk if medicines used properly and if
there is full compliance with the anti-retroviral medicines", he
said.

I refuse to deal with them:

Dr. Ghassan Nabil said that he absolutely refuses to deal with AIDS
patients what ever the reason of infection was, due to the fear of
the disease transmission in spite of his knowledge about the methods
of transmission of the disease.

Yemeni Journalist Yahya Jaber said that he feels anxious and
tensioned as he hears of any person has AIDS and he refuses to shake
hands with anyone had already shook hand with an AIDS patient.

This refusal comes out from educated people and their ignorance
about methods of transmission of the disease makes them to ignore
their humanitarian role in accepting such persons affected with
AIDS.

Law to protect AIDS patients:

Parliamentarian and Chief of the Yemeni Parliamentarians Assembly
for AIDS Prevention and Protection the rights of AIDS patients, Dr.
Abdul Bari Al-Dogash said that the discrimination against AIDS
patients is a violation for their human rights and the existence of
a law to protect the community from infection and protecting the
rights of AIDS patients is a necessity because AIDS disease is not a
health problem only but also a social, humanitarian and
developmental one.

He revealed that the draft of this law will be discussed in the
Parliament once"the Law of Society Prevention from AIDS and the
protection of AIDS patients." Then it will be submitted to the
President of the Republic for ratification.

The Manager of the National AIDS Control Program, Dr. Abdel-Hamid
Alsohaiby said that the program has recorded 108 new cases during
the first half of 2008. Official statistics issued by the program
showed that the number of infected cases with AIDS in Yemen since
1987 until September 2008 reached 2491 cases.

He noted that the program had implemented in coordination with
concerned organizations awareness campaigns targeted 316,308 people
represent different segments of society particularly youth,
students, health workers and people who are more open to the
infection risk.

He summarized the awareness activities and educational services by
the hotline (175), pointing out that 4549 people made calls to this
hotline. He added that more than 160000 booklets, brochures and
posters have been distributed in various governorates of the
country.

Regional Activities:

The Representative of AIDS Regional Program in the Arab States Fuad
Al-Sabri said that the program had organized a number of training
courses for media men for developing the society awareness towards
AIDS patients, rejection of the wrong concept about AIDS patients
and correction information about the methods of transmission of the
disease in order to reduce the dishonor and discrimination that
accompany AIDS patients which let to bad impacts on the patients and
the society.

He added that the program had organized a workshop to develop
national legislations for AIDS prevention and the protection of
people living with the AIDS patients.