PLWHIV AND PLWHA

It may be that the last generation of HIV sufferers has never known living without ART. They have no idea of people dying as brain damaged skeletons with dementia. It is still going on.

PLWHIV means people living with HIV. It means they are in early stages of infection or living a long life with ART medication that has killed the virus in the blood though not in the hiding places.

PLWHA means people living with AIDS. They may have been on ART but the virus has become immune to the first or second line of drugs. Or they have never been on ARV and are slowly moving to death as people with memory, weight, fingernail, hair or muscle loss. 

They are moving to die as brain damaged skeletons. They may be in their 4th to 8th year of infection.

The AIDS Council of Papua New Guinea refuses to use the acronym PLWHA as they are falsely giving the impression that everyone are on ART and going on to long life. 

Some sufferers may be afraid to be seen to be HIV positive in their family or village. Others are living too far away from a care centre or blocked regularly without bus fare, tribal fights or floods.

There was a recent media report that 48,000 people are HIV infected in PNG. It may be that 35,000 are PLWHIV while the rest are dying as PLWHA.

It is time for the National AIDS Council officers to get off their arses and seek out rural areas to be served with AIDS care centres. There seems to be the attitude that PLWHA are dead meat. Do not refer to them.

Refusal to acknowledge PLWHA is false propaganda.