Are attitudes changing? (People's Attitude Towards HIV/AIDS Patients)

Member Name: little devil

Product:	People's Attitude Towards HIV/AIDS Patients
Date:	16/06/01 (554 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: society is slowly changing

Disadvantages: the way some people treat patients, the illness

The diseases HIV and AIDS are becoming more common in society yet sadly some people are still undereducated and misinformed about the illnesses. Unfortunately there are people who have a negative attitude to patients and act in an irresponsible way. All I can say is I find this very narrow minded, we are all entitled to our own opinion but this doesn’t have to be forced onto people. No matter how much you disagree with something you cannot punish people for having the illness.

To write an opinion on people’s attitudes to HIV/AIDS I have decided that I need to first ‘educate’ the good people of dooyoo about the diseases. I do not mean to patronise or say that people are misinformed but the sad truth is that in this day and age people still do not fully understand what they actually are so here we go…

What is HIV?
It is Human Immunodeficiency Virus that destroys the immune system. This is the disease that commonly leads onto AIDS. HIV means that the body cannot cope with other diseases, such as the common cold. HIV does not kill you itself; it just allows the body to be more susceptible to diseases that may be fatal.

Most people who contract HIV will see the illness progress into AIDS, although there are now treatments available to slow down and even stop this process. However there are some sufferers who do not develop AIDS, or if they do it is very slowly.

How do we test for HIV?
This is something I can say I have personal experience of. I had wound to wound contact with a friend who I later learned was probably HIV positive. I therefore had to pluck up the courage and go to my local GUM clinic, sex clinic. After a series of internal test down below the doctor saw me and told me I had to wait until 3 months after the incident before I could be tested for it. This is because it takes 3 months for your body to produce the anti-bodies.

When I could have it done the specially
trained nurse took my blood, which I must say was more painful than a normal blood test but I don’t know why. It was then sent to the pathology lab and I had to come back 2 days later for the results. I was thankfully negative but them 3 months were horrible, it’s not knowing you see.

If for any reason you need an HIV test then it is best to have it done by a GUM clinic as it is private. Your records there are never released, however if you go to the doctor for one, they put it on your permanent medical records. This may not sound like a problem but as the nurse told me if you apply for life insurance or something they look at your medical history. She told me that they are wary of giving life insurance if you have gone for this test, hm!

What is AIDS?
This is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The most common cause of AIDS is the virus HIV, although scientists believe there may be other diseases that make the body more susceptible to AIDS. It is the final, and worse, stage of the HIV virus, when the immune system has been totally wrecked.

HIV and AIDS are not the same! This is a common mistake made but the truth is that AIDS is the final stage of the virus HIV, it is not the same and means the immune system has been destroyed as much as it can be.

How HIV is spread…
The virus can be transmitted from person to person in a number of ways, the most common are;
- sex and sexual contact
- blood – before blood was ‘screened’ you could get the disease through some transfusions, but it is very unlikely now a days.
- from mother to child

Common Misconceptions…
- Although HIV traces have been found in saliva and tears the only proven ways of transmitting it are through blood, seaman, breast milk and vaginal ‘fluid’. I think you would have to drink a few hundred buckets of saliva to be at any form of risk so it is not spread through kissing! r><br>- HIV is not spread through contact with a person with the virus. Hugging, sharing a toilet, kissing are all safe and mosquitoes don’t carry the virus either.
- It is not a ‘dirty’ disease and sufferers have nothing to be ashamed of.
- People with these illnesses are not to blame. Be it that they caught it through sex, birth or sharing needles it is not the fault of the person who has the disease. Don’t we all put our trust in our partners of we have unprotected sex, or how many off us are really that ‘careful’ with dangerous situations?


Now to the main bit of the opinion, the people who suffer from the diseases and the reaction of the public. People are different and so their reactions will be different. For example

- Most people are very wary of people with HIV/AIDS as they feel threatened and at risk. However there is nothing to be scared of and you are in no risk.

- Sadly there are people out there who feel that they are better then sufferers and are very prejudice. I suppose it is because society used to class it as something to be ashamed of and that the disease was ‘dirty’. This is not true. Yet there are people out there who feel above others and think they have the right to class some people as third rate citizens. I suppose a lot of this comes form HIV being associated with Homosexual males, so a lot of the narrow minded homophobic, who know very little, are prejudice on these grounds only.

I hate to say it but my mother is one of these people. She is uneducated on the subject and doesn’t know anything about it. No matter how much I have tried to tell her she still thinks that you can get HIV from being near a patient with their disease. I am very much in conflict with her but it is the way she was brought up. She is very homophobic as well, which we also argue about, so the two link together. I hate people who are narrow minded
and will not listen to the truth.

So what does society do when they are prejudice? Well it is a sad fact that we seem to resort to violence and making people feel like nothing. People as a group are horrible, when a ‘pack’ of people all agree that something is wrong they go on a big crusade to get their point across. I know this is going off on a tangent but look at the anti-capitalist protests for evidence of this. It’s disgusting really that people will lower themselves so much as to abuse people with an illness.

- One of the worst ways people react are I think when it is close to them. Disowning a friend if they transmit the disease is disgusting. They are the same person and if they had told you they had cancer wouldn’t we all be upset for them? They need to live a normal life and that involves keeping their close friends and family, it is now that they will be needed even more.

- However there are people out there who are educated and feel sympathetic towards people with the illness and just treat them like everyone else. After all they are people too!


Sadly in today’s world of sexual promiscuity and just general trusting the number of cases of HIV is increasing all the time. This means so is public awareness and opinion. There are a number of resources available that provide information and supply the facts opposed to myths. People should be more understanding, the word there is however should!

There is also more information and treatment available for a sufferer. The key thing is to keep healthy and ensure they do not pass it on, particularly with sex partners. I know that no one with the disease will want to give it to anyone else, but I know of one person who found his HIV infection powerful and would give it to the ‘odd’ woman as a punishment for him receiving it without warning. Sadly there are some nasty people out there with the illness as well as
without it. Attitudes are changing but I feel it is not fast enough, as with anything else the British take their time!


People who suffer from HIV/AIDS need to be treated like any other person, after all don’t we all bleed the same and hurt the same? They are not any less of a person and although it is understandable for you to be wary when around a sufferer don’t make them feel worthless and an outcast. They will not willingly put you at risk, as they know what it is like to live with the disease. Be humane and just treat them as you would any other person, don’t be nasty to them but don’t be ‘too’ nice either, they may find this patronizing.

I think it’s sad that in out multi cultural and diverse world, where technology has progressed and the world shrunk there are still people who react badly to a HIV/AIDS patient. Society is cruel and no matter how much we try to change it as long as there are a few narrow minded people we will never stamp out the prejudices of the past.

I hope that I have tackled this subject well and that all my information is relevant and correct. Thankyou for reading and listening and remember we are all the same no matter what we have, what out colour or religion :o).