Minister’s Disclosure, HIV & Our Social Responsibility
By Niroshan Muwanwella –March 9, 2016
Dr. Niroshan Muwanwella
HIV and AIDS has long been a topic that polarises society, be it western or eastern. While scientists are still coming up with theories as to the origin of this retrovirus, what is clear about it now is how it’s transmitted. The most well known methods of transmission are unprotected sexual intercourse, blood contamination, especially through intravenous needle sharing at drug abuse. All of these methods are associated with social vices hence the stigma attached to the patients infected with the virus.
In the 60s and 70s, when HIV infection first became an epidemic, the western world reacted the only way it knew how. The society insulted the patients, sidelined them and berated them citing their vices. This was an era when medical ethics was unfortunately still in its puberty thus there was no defence mechanism against this social injustice.
The societal and medical landscape has heavily evolved since those dark times, at least in the west. The patients, even those with HIV infection are treated with respect, dignity and most importantly, with confidentiality they require. One of the advantages of this shift in thinking was that the under-reporting of cases due to the stigma attached with it slowly waned and the true magnitude of the problem was recognised. And eventually it paved the way to understand the disease fully and implement prevention programmes along with proper research into treatment. Story of HIV has therefore come a long way from the era of a poor life expectancy of 4-5 years to an era where more people die with HIV than of HIV/AIDS.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the present situation in many of the eastern countries including Sri Lanka. The stigma attached to the patients with HIV or in fact, persons rumoured to be having HIV, is stinging to say the least. In Sri Lanka, the HIV/AIDS prevention programmes have done so much to raise awareness on this topic, nevertheless the society does not seem to have fully comprehended the basics of the disease.
