From: Dailynews
Having HIV or AIDS is no longer scary because medical advancements have made it possible to have medications that are efficacious. As long as the patients take their medications every day at the same time, they too can have long lives and be as healthy just as those who are HIV negative.
In the past, we saw people with AIDS having sunken cheeks, were very skinny and tended to die quickly after finding out that they were positive. Nowadays with the HIV medications, people can have long life expectancies, normal lives, families and uninfected children. They can have grandchildren look after them when they become old.
It does not matter who we are, we all seek for that special someone who we can spend our lives with, have children and a normal family. If you find out that you have HIV, you may feel that there is no opportunity for you to have a family or tell your partner that you are infected because you are afraid your partner will dislike you for being infected with the disease. You may even have lost hope of having children because you fear that they will become infected too. Please note that this kind of thinking is no longer true now. People who are infected with HIV can have lovers with or without HIV and can have healthy children not infected with HIV. With the new advances in HIV medications, if you take your medications always on time and every day, your body will be able to suppress the virus in your blood to the point that you cannot spread the virus to your lover or to your child. Your health will not be weakened if you are pregnant and infected with HIV. There are studies that have shown that there are no health problems for HIV-infected women to become pregnant. Also, it has been shown that it does not matter whether one or both partners are infected with HIV, it will not affect the health of the children if you receive antenatal care and receive HIV medications as soon as possible. The best scenario is to start HIV medications before you become pregnant, this will guarantee that your child will not become infected with HIV.
Assistant professor Thanomsak Anekthananon, president of the AIDS Association of Thailand said, “In the past 15-20 years, approximately 2,000 children were newly infected with HIV annually. Any pregnant woman who come to receive antenatal care will now be tested for HIV and if positive, will receive HIV medications immediately to prevent HIV transmission to the baby. When the baby is born, we also give HIV medications to prevent HIV infection and found that new HIV infection from mother-to-child is less than 2% or 100 per year nationally. We can see this trend continuously go down until there are no more new infections in babies. This can happen if women are given preventative medications to prevent HIV infection too. That is why we request all pregnant women to come to receive antenatal care so they can be tested for HIV and if positive, start HIV medications as soon as possible. She must take the HIV medications every day at the same time to ensure that her baby will not become infected with HIV. She can have a cute and healthy baby without HIV infection if she continuously takes her HIV medications as indicated by the physician.”
What will happen to those children who do get HIV infection from their mothers even though it is now quite rare? Professor Kulkanya Chokephaibulkit, Chief of Infectious Diseases Department of Pediatric Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, who has more than 20 years of experience taking care of these children who are infected from their mothers said, “In the past, when the infants became HIV positive, they tend to die very young. But now, when the infants are infected with HIV, they can have long, normal lives if they take their HIV medications. They can even go to school and do all activities normally done by young, uninfected children. HIV-infected children can grow up to be strong. This can be achieved if the children always come to see the doctor and take their medications at the same time every day. There are many infants infected with HIV since birth who are now teenagers, have nephews/nieces and some have even graduated from universities to become engineers and other professionals. Some have married to people who are not infected with HIV and have uninfected, cute, healthy and strong children. They still come to visit me. I keep taking care of them even when they have a normal, extended family and are all grown up. People infected with HIV can have normal lives like those who are not infected with HIV. So don’t tell me HIV infection is disgusting because it is not easily transferrable. It does not always mean that having HIV is associated with something bad. Many received the infection through their lovers without knowing it themselves. Some even have only one sexual partner and can still get infected with HIV. There are many good people who receive HIV infection so don’t call it the disease of people with bad behaviors or the disease of the promiscuous. The society should tolerate HIV, especially those who got it from their mothers because they are innocent. Right now there are good medications that can help stop the spread of the virus to other people, let you have good health status similar to those who are not infected. The medical advances in technology have given us hope that one day there may be a cure for HIV.”
“If you know you are at risk like having several sexual partners, inject drugs or share injecting equipment with others who are infected with HIV, please come to get tested for HIV to see if you have the infection or not. To know your HIV status is not the end of your life because we have many strategies to make your body strong. You can continue to live normally. This is the truth. If you do not want to know your HIV status or you already know but don’t care, you are simply hurting yourself. Nobody can live by themselves. There is no one that cares for you if you do not first love yourself. If you love yourself and know that people are concerned of you, you should get treated, the sooner the better”, said Dr. Chokephaibulkit.
The society should be more forgiving and provide encouragement to people infected with HIV. The society should give these people a chance to be able to do good for the society. The society should provide moral support to those infected to get treated and be compassionate. We should not discriminate against those who are infected because we will never know if our loved ones will one day accidentally catch HIV infection or not. We hope that in the future, there will be a cure for HIV infection because now, anyone can get treated for HIV but you must take your medications every day at the same time. You must strictly adhere to your HIV regimen so you can have a healthy, strong life and live normally like other uninfected people as well as have a family. We hope that in the near future that there will be a cure for HIV.
