My view on dealing with HIV/AIDS patients.

Thinking that I wanted to make my 2 month break somewhat productive, I signed up for a hospital attachment at Sg. Buloh Hospital a couple of months back. I thought it’d be those typical attachments where we go around different wards shadowing doctors. But little did I know that it was a one week programme organised by a drug company, MSD. It’s called the ‘It Begins With You’ programme. It’s a medical student attachment programme where we’ll be dealing with HIV/AIDS patients. The programme was from the 22nd Nov – 26th Nov.

It was a pretty big thing; we got personalised invitation letters from the Corporate Affairs Manager of MSD, temporary IDs to enable us to enter wards and a cheque worth rm200 [didn’t think you’d get paid to do an attachment, eh? ]. Not only that, we have to come up with a presentation for the 11th of December which will be presented to some very important people, at least that’s what we were told [will blog about that in later posts]. I made a right choice signing up for this programme as I now see things a lil differently. :)

The last one week really changed my perception on things. It opened my eyes to the world of those living with HIV/AIDS. Drug addicts, ex- convicts, transexuals; I’ve met them all and if I were to tell you that they have HIV/AIDS, you wouldn’t be surprised would you? But let’s say I tell you that this successful businessman with a loving wife and 2 kids is HIV positive? Or if this pregnant housewife who doesn’t work, stays home most of the time and takes care of her other 2 children is HIV positive? Would you still believe me? What I’ve learnt from this one week is that anyone, just anyone is at risk of HIV. So what do we do? How do we avoid this? Through education.

A lot of HIV patients that I’ve talked to have no prior knowledge of this disease. What saddens me most is that most of the patients could have had avoided from getting this disease but it was because of lack of education or precaution that changed their lives forever. For example, I managed to meet a drug addict that has been clean for the past year. He started taking drugs at the tender age of 16 and I asked him, how’d he know about drugs at such a young age? It was because of influence from his friends in school and he continued taking drugs for another 33 years. Imagine what the difference would have been if he had made the right friends, or if his parents have found out about it earlier or if he had knowledge on the dangers of sharing needles. Another example. I met this lady who got infected with HIV from unprotected sex from her drug addict boyfriend. Imagine how different her life would have turned out to be if they had used a condom or if he had been honest and told her he was a drug addict.

But it’s too late now to say ‘What if this? What if that?’. This is where not just doctors but also the society, come in. We have to play our parts in helping these people. Some doctors would say, ‘Why should we help these HIV people? We’re going to start them on HAART [Highly Active AntiRetroviral Therapy] treatment but they’re still going to continue taking drugs or have unprotected sex? So what’s the point?’ But think of it this way. HIV patients are also still people, with families. Wouldn’t that extra years of prolonged life from the treatment enable them to watch their children grow up? Enable them to reflect upon their life and make amends? Enable them to make full use of their remaining years of life? I was shocked when I found out that some doctors would turn down a patient when they find out that the patient is HIV positive. I believe that everyone deserves a second chance in life and everyone deserves a right to treatment. A right to live.

Sadly, society today frown upon these people living with HIV/AIDS [PLWHA]. Talking to these patients made me realised that they’re really no different from us. But unfortunately, they’re stigmatised. PLWHA are looked at differently, that’s why most of them live in fear of being discovered. It amazes me so when these patients tell me that their children or their parents or their relatives do not know they have HIV. They’re afraid that their children will be made fun of, or that their parents and relatives would not accept them and they’ll have no where to go. These patients will then have no one to confide in and no one to support them. Imagine being all sick without anyone caring for you? Isn’t that a very sad feeling?

Medical students out there, we’re all going to be affected by PLWHA cause we’re going to be future doctors. But I’ll be honest with you guys. Before this hospital attachment, I would say that I was afraid that I would come to such close contact with PLWHA. Why? Why was I so afraid? It was because I didn’t know. I wasn’t equipped with enough knowledge about them. This attachment taught me so much and I am no longer afraid. Because I know. I know that HIV doesn’t transmit just by talking to them, or shaking their hands or hugging them. It only transmits through blood, sexual contact or through vertical transmission [will blog more on HIV facts in another post]. So I suppose the only way to stop discriminating those living with HIV is to educate the people. We shouldn’t be scared of them guys. Cause they’re really just like us. We can be the change. It begins with you.