Current: Vol. 5, Issue 2 April - June, 2008

YOUNG, HEALTHY AND HIV-POSITIVE: WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

Andrew Njawuzi and John Bogere

Rebecca*, aged 22, is in her final year at university. Society norms demand that she finds a spouse. She has been dating at the university but is now ready to settle down because she feels marriage is her only protection from
contracting HIV. She meets this intelligent, handsome, 24 year old gentleman and they click right away. They date for a while and she decides he is ‘the one’ to take home to her parents. The desire to get intimate sets in and then the bombshell falls; ‘I am HIV-positive’, he says! What would be your reaction? Come on now, tell the truth! Most of you, me included, would probably immediately take to our heels.

That is if we believe the bombshell in the first place. This is the dilemma facing young HIVpositive adults today. Close to 26 years since the first Ugandan HIV case was diagnosed, we have scores of young, healthy adults (above 18 years) who were born HIV-positive, but have survived this long thanks to antiretroviral therapy (ART). They are completing tertiary education and graduating, ready to take on the world. They may even not be in school, but have started earning their own living. They are human and therefore have the same desires as every human, such as the need to love and be loved sexually. But is society ready for them?

I am not sure society has yet realized the new challenge that comes with ART. young HIV positive adults are right from their childhood taught and counseled about positive living and couple disclosure. Many have diligently taken on this mantle and have often disclosed their sero status to suitors and prospective partners. But how many people believe their story? For those who believe them, how many end up stigmatizing them? So for a young HIV positive adult, what do you do? Do you continue insisting that you are truly HIV positive even at the risk of being stigmatized and discriminated against or, do you just go ahead and have sex with whoever is after you,
after all, you played your part and warned them?
In cases where the two agree to continue with the relationship, after disclosure, society may stigmatize them for ‘signing a death warrant’. It is unrealistic to expect HIV- positive people to remain celibate. Nobody knows how long a person can live on ART before they succumb to death. They, especially the young adults, want to have the same things as their friends. They want marriage and kids. Are we now going to ask them to sit around waiting for their death, yet we have been encouraging them to live positively?

It is time society adjusted to the new developments and started supporting them. If we treat them humanely, they will not hide their status. This will reduce new infections. All we have to do is work hand in hand with medical workers to give them the kind of advice that will encourage positive living. That way we all win. Otherwise, we stand the risk of overturning all the strides made in the fight against HIV.

(* Fictional character)