If God had created death in such a way that people died according to their ages and wealth with those oldest and poor dying first the world would be a very miserable place to live in especially for the elderly and the very poor.
God in His own wisdom made death so unpredictable that in most cases no one knows who is dying next. Knowledge that one is not suffering alone from any ailment is also very comforting to most people. AIDS has no discrimination and affects everyone be they young, old rich, poor, government minister or church leaders in fact all social strata has not been spared.
The reason why HIV/AIDS has been so stubborn and difficult to defeat is caused by the way it was unpacked to the general public. AIDS came into the world as a cruel disease that affected mostly the gays, homosexuals, drug addicts, prostitutes and other such like sexually irresponsible people. The shame and fear attached to being HIV positive made people fear disclosing their status to others hence many died and still die without disclosing and still more are afraid to disclose let alone talk about it.
In late August this year I wrote an article celebrating HIV positive people who had disclosed their positive status some as far back as 1986, with some still alive some forty years later.
Myself, my wife, now 31 year old daughter and mother to three HIV- boys disclosed our HIV positive status from as far back as 2002 and here we’re still enjoying excellent health thanks to disclosure and ART.
Disclosure is therapeutic and brings in much needed relief and freedom. Each time I talk so freely about my being HIV positive and people look at me with approval and admiration I feel like a weight has been lifted from me and a sense of being healed feels me up. I have always attributed our long and healthy life as a family to disclosure among other things.
People who are letting us down are government and other high ranking officials as well as celebrities who are HIV positive but fear disclosure. Ordinary folk are not comfortable to disclose if the affluent do not disclose first. It is not a secret that we have lots of high ranking officials, celebrities and others who are living with HIV but fear disclosing for fear of being stigmatized or rejected.
If all those of us living with HIV disclosed and took our medication publicly there would be no HIV/AIDS to talk about today. The fact that we continue to play hide and seek with HIV means that we still want it in our midst. One day when we really want to get rid of it we will encourage everyone to disclose and treat HIV just like any other health condition with everyone taking their ART freely and in public.
The leaders in this disclosure parade shall be none other than government and other high ranking officials and celebrities. The ordinary folk would follow suit saying if such high ranking people can disclose who am I to hide my HIV positive status and that’s when HIV/AIDS would like COVID-19 die a natural death.
By: Piason Maringwa
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