HIV INFECTION AND FAMILY RESPONSE

There is a regular message in the media that the blame for stigma and discrimination lies with family who make the young sufferer afraid and ashamed.  This is only partly true.

There is more to the issue than this. The overriding emotion in the news of HIV infection of a loved one is fear and disappointment by family members. 

The young girl has been through school at great expense and now is unable to marry and bring bride price into the family. The parents are unhappy with the fact that she has been going out for sex.

The young people may be afraid to tell parents and even afraid to go for an AIDS test. They do not want to know. 

So they allow their health to sink past the point of no return until they die. The blame is laid on the workers in care groups by the AIDS false news reporters.

A young woman in the village may have been a loving mother and made HIV infected by her husband. But she lives in his village and has no way to defend herself if the womanising husband tells his family that she infected him. 

As the person sinks to AIDS there is the onset of dementia or brain damage. The person starts to hallucinate, have delusions and fear of being killed by evil spirits. 

The family may find it easier to blame the problem on sorcery. Some innocent person has to die.

In the past, the trouble making boozing PLWHA made the practice of punishing their families by announcing to the media that they were discriminated against by their families. 

They did not mention that they caused so much violent and drunken disruption to the family and preferred to live in other places around the town. They also suffered from demented screaming and shouting at night at being attacked by evil spirits.

Some sufferers are afraid to go to a cere centre for testing and ARV drugs as they are ashamed to sit in the waiting room to be identified by their health books as come for HIV/AIDS treatment. 

There may be people in the waiting room who know them and will spread the story. There are reported to be 40% of HIV sufferers in this country not on ARV. Why is it so? The drugs are available.

There is a young woman who died recently and was afraid to tell her parents and extended family. She claimed to have TB but refused to go for TB medication. 

Perhaps she knew she had HIV infection. Now she is dead and her young son is dying with no medication. The family is doing nothing.