Re: A person with HIV tells why Stigma was relevan
Posted by voodoowoman:
Let me see now, my mother suffers from seizures and my father died of kidney disease brought on by alcoholism and diabetes. They are stigmatized too but I never once heard either of them whine about it. Kidney disease is always fatal yet where are the special ribbons worn by starlets and actors to support these people? There are many orphan diseases that recceive little attention or research funding. That is what the show should have been about. Aids is not an orphan disease. We already know as lay people all we need to know. Keep your zipper zipped, stay away from the drugs and practise monogamy.
I realise Aids is a worldwide plague, So was smallpoz, diptheria, cholera, polio. I do not recall victims of these diseases banding together to persuade entertainers to make heroes of them because they contracted a disease. If they were heroic it is because they showed courage in spite of their suffering. The ridiculous reasoning behind this farcical plot stinks to high heaven of shilling to a politically powerful lobby in the entertainment industry, Gays. Aids is tragic and sad. So is cancer.
I am sick of these hypocrytical preachers.
Alcoholism: Ever hear of the Betty Ford Clinic and all the celebrities? How many AA and AlAnon chapters are there in every town in America? By comparison, how many counties in a state are served by a SINGLE AIDS Service organization even if there is only one (in NC, I know that the ASO in my area serves FIFTEEN counties)?
Diabetes and Kidney Disease: Carroll O'Conner, Mary Tyler Moore and others.
Cancer: The Pink Ribbon. The entire Oh! Network and Lifetime Network for Women support breast cancer awareness. There is an American Lung Association. There are numerous celebrities who have had or have cancer and are open about it.
Other diseases...Would you mind comparing the incidence and prevalence of HIV/AIDS with these other diseases. Put them all on a graph. Both incidence and prevalence for all these other diseases goes in a relatively straight line through the years.
Add HIV/AIDS. The incidence and prevalence continues to climb by comparison, with, only in recent years, a reduction in the degree of inclination.
We know more about heart disease than any other illness. We still know more about cancer than any HIV. Some cancers are even curable. We know what causes diabetes and how to control it. Maybe you've forgotten that we didn't find out that HIV causes AIDS until the mid80's. Maybe you've forgotten that truly usable HIV drugs did not emerge until the early to mid90's. Maybe you've forgotten that those drugs are still inaccessible to lots of persons in this nation, not to mention others, because they can't afford them, whereas any person that needs a kidney dialysis machine gets one and that a kidney transplant can cure it. Maybe you've also forgotten that BECAUSE of research into HIV we've gained immense knowledge of the human immune system and genetics that we very likely would not have had, and that knowledge has been used to make gains in treating cancers and other diseases. How many people with epilepsy are marginalized by society the way that people with HIV continue to be marginalized? Your Dad can get a kidney machine with no problem, but a person with HIV in this nation that has no health insurance can't get HIV drugs and, if the state in which s/he lives has a drug assistance program, that person may be lucky to get on a waiting list, because ADAP programs are being defunded by the states even as we speak. Even if s/he has insurance, they can still not have those drugs paid for bec. the coverage is inadequate or because they've exceeded their lifetime cap. How many people shun your Mom and Dad because they think they can get epilepsy or kidney disease by breathing the same air, through a mosquito bite, via a swimming pool, or eating or drinking after them? Look in the health education literature, there are STILL people in this nation, even in health care and emergency services and police depts, that know how you really get HIV, yet who still think you can get HIV via casual contact. (This actually happened to me at my last job. An employee complained about having to eat in the same breakroom as me, because she saw me wash a dish I had eaten from in the sink. She wrote a note to my boss, which I saw. It said that she was reporting me for doing that because, "What if he had bleeding gums and then I wanted to wash my dishes too. I could HIV that way" The real kicker was when she finished with "I know how you get HIV, I was once a volunteer at a hospital." Of course, when I saw the note, I called her butt into my office and told her that my 3 years at the CDC National HIV/AIDS Hotline trumped her volunteer training at the local hospital and that she was abt. to get a real education).
I'm so sick of people that complain about HIV but don't have a clue about these other diseases. Don't preach to me about these other diseases when you don't know the facts yourself.
In my 23 years as a registered nurse/public health nurse, I have never, and I mean never refused to treat anyone based on some misguided belief that "they deserved to get sick, therefore let them die." If this is an example of the attitude of what the upcoming doctors will be, then it's time for me to retire. I refuse to be a part of a compassion-less medical community. 
