Schlagwort-Archive: HIV stigma

Deep Breaths: Learning to Live Well With HIV
نفس های عمیق: بیاموزید به خوبی با اچ آی وی زندگی کنید

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Life can sometimes seem like an endless barrage of accolades and admonishments, with each propelling you from one moment to the next. Whereas the thrill of achievement is fleeting at best, the fallout from a mistake can seem like an endless freefall. When it comes to HIV, those who live with the virus can often feel as if it is the ultimate mark against them; forever diminishing any future good deeds or successes to come. But this feeling, whether it stems from HIV or any other moment or action you regret, is merely a result of self-induced shame and guilt.

And it is complete and total bullshit.

Just think about it. A life without mistakes or missteps is not a life at all, or at least not one that sounds very exciting. Conversely, a life worth mentioning is filled with excitement and regret, love and heartbreak, adventures and mistakes, and maybe even an STD. Of course, it’s best to avoid anything that is bad for you, sexual or otherwise. And while that is a nice quote to stitch onto a pillow, it is all but worthless to you in real life. Because in the Technicolor world, personal growth comes from the aftermath of doing things we sometimes regret.

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Unfortunately, the social stigma and blinding fear associated with HIV often hinders people from growth. Instead, many people choose to live in the shadow of their former selves and rest on the notion that they will never be able to have the life they once had. They do this even though all of the pieces are sitting there just waiting to be but together again. No, nott just put back together, but improved upon. Restored, renovated and upgraded.

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6 Different Ways You can get HIV
شش راه گوناگونی که شما می توانید به اچ آی وی مبتلا شوید

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graphic: AIDS.gov

graphic: AIDS.gov

There are a lot of assumptions made about the kind of people who get HIV. Some people think that it is only an issue for people who are promiscuous, the poor, minorities, gay people, or whatever other group that they are not a part of. With the false safety of these beliefs, people continue to make common mistakes that have the potential to lead them to a rude awakening about who can get HIV. More than half of young people who are living with HIV are unaware of their status, and HIV infection is on the rise. So don’t be naïve about the kinds of people who can get HIV, because no one is exempt from infection and almost everyone has had an experience that could have made all the difference.

Here are six common ways that you can become infected with HIV:

You thought he was monogamous.شما فکر می کردید شریک تان به شما (یک همبستر) وفادار بود

Surprisingly, this is one of the most common ways that people report becoming HIV-positive. When you enter into a monogamous relationship, you shouldn’t have to always keep guessing your partner’s is faithfulness or be forced to wear condoms on your wedding night. But that doesn’t mean you should turn a blind eye to the possibilities of your partner sleeping with another person. So keep the communication open and the topic of HIV on both of your minds to minimize your risk while maximizing your pleasure.

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„Stigma Index“ Empowers People With HIV to Make Stigma Visible, Confront Injustice

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Laurel Sprague Offers Plain Talk on Stigma and Gives an Update on the First Year of the PLHIV Stigma Index in the U.S.

By Julie „JD“ Davids, from TheBody.com, November 26, 2014

Laurel Sprague

Laurel Sprague

HIV stigma is slippery. People can unknowingly play into HIV stigma, or not recognize the impact of stigma in their community. And stigma is enacted at all levels — by individuals, by communities, through public and private structures and in social and legal polities.

Given all this, how do we pin down, document and confront HIV stigma? Since 2008, the People Living with HIV (PLHIV) Stigma Index has measured and revealed the shape of stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with HIV. And the Stigma Index isn’t a study that delivers a report to sit on shelves. Planning and carrying out the index empowers people with HIV, and is itself a force of addressing HIV stigma.

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12 ways to give HIV Stigma a Well-Deserved Side Eye
دوازده راه برای زدن انگ و توهین نسبت به زندگی مبتلایان اچ آی وی

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HIVstigmaTo read the original text in English, please look below!

برگردان: کیومرث سراج الهی

دوازده راه برای زدن انگ و توهین نسبت به زندگی مبتلایان اچ آی وی که به روشنی به چشم دیده میشوند

واژه ها برای بیان چیزهای کوچک نیروی قوی دارند. اگر شما آنها (کلمات) را در راه  اشتباه بکار ببرید, میتوانند بسیار زیان آور و خطرناک باشند
کلمات منفی, افکار و نگرش ها ی نا مناسب, ننگ بی جا می توانند در مورد افرادی که با اچ آی وی زندگی می کنند نه تنها توهین کننده باشند بلکه زخمهای عمیقی در روان و جسم این افراد ایجاد کنند, به اندازه ای که سلامتی آنان را به خطر بیندازد. ما دراین باره بطور مثال در سطرهای پایین  به 12  نگرش منفی آن اشاره کردیم.
 
 مبتلا به اچ ای وی هستید؟ بنظر من  شما بیمار یا ضعیف بنظر نمی رسید
در مقابل چنین موردی میبایست چنین هم پاسخ داد. آیا بسیاری از مردم معلول و بیمار در دنیا را میتوان با ظاهرشان شناخت؟ گاهی بیماریهای هم وجود دارند که آنقدر پیشرفت کرده نیستند و کسی نمیتواند بظاهر بیماری آن شخص را به چشم مشاهده کند. برای خواندن ادامه مطلب خواهشمندم روی لینک زیر ادامه مطلب کلیک کنید.

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’Speak Out’ Campaigns Against HIV Stigma

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Vincent Fuqua, left, talks with some of the men who attended a recent reception to introduce the new Speak Out social media campaign.

Vincent Fuqua, left, talks with some of the men who attended a recent reception to introduce the new Speak Out social media campaign.
(Photo: Jane Philomen Cleland)

The signs are hard to miss.

Exit a Muni train at the Castro station, and the wall-sized posters are greeting you as the doors slide open. The message – it is time to start talking about HIV and AIDS. Or, as Vincent Fuqua, program coordinator for the San Francisco Department of Public Health put it, „find our voice again.“

„As long as people are still becoming infected with HIV, as long as people are still HIV-positive,“ Fuqua said, „it’s still a part of us.“

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HIV stigma can be worse than the disease

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Photo: Public Health Agency of Canada

Photo: Public Health Agency of Canada

MONTREAL – When a 50-year-old Quebec woman was sentenced to 10 months in jail and three years probation for assaulting police officers by spitting on them, her punishment sent a chill among anyone living with HIV.

A Maniwaki judge ruled last year that the woman, who was positive for human immunodeficiency virus, had caused the two arresting officers extreme anxiety when she spit on them.

Never mind that it’s been known for many years that HIV, like hepatitis C, cannot be transmitted through saliva.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no documented case of transmission from an HIV-infected person spitting on police or anyone else.

But one officer claimed that after the incident she was afraid of passing an infection to her baby, while the other officer said he was unable to go back to work because he was suffering side-effects from taking anti-viral drugs as a precaution against HIV infection.

During sentencing, the judge said that the courts must send a clear “unequivocal signal” that spitting on citizens will not be tolerated by people with HIV or hepatitis C.

The case is a striking example of the legal consequences of HIV/AIDS discrimination and stigma, said lawyer Liz Lacharpagne of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. “Spitting is an assault but most people are not sent to jail for that,” she said. “She got an enormous sentence because they were afraid of HIV.”

The face of HIV/AIDS has changed dramatically in Canada over the past two decades, turning into several epidemics in different population groups, according to Health Canada. Men who have sex with men remain the group that’s most affected by HIV/AIDS, but the disease has also become a public health issue for injecting drug users, women, Aboriginal peoples, prison inmates, immigrants from countries where HIV is endemic, as well as those already living with HIV/AIDS. And studies show “a significant potential” for of HIV transmission among youth.

A diagnosis is no longer a death sentence. People newly diagnosed with are told to go back to work — to keep their dreams and to expect to live as long as anyone else with a chronic illness. Highly effective retroviral drugs have reduced HIV to undetectable levels in semen, vaginal fluids and blood.

One thing hasn’t changed, say AIDS activists, and that is the fear that disclosing a health status of HIV infection will lead to negative consequences. On top of handling health conditions, people living with AIDS have reported facing rejection by family and friends, job refusals and home loss, and some became victims of violence.

“Criminalization” is now part the changing portrait of AIDS, said Lacharpagne, who works as legal counsel for COCQ-SIDA, a coalition of Quebec community organizations involved in the fight against AIDS.

The organization has seen an increase in discrimination complaints since the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Oct. 5, 2012 that people living with HIV have a legal duty to tell their sexual partners about their HIV infection, except when the risk of transmission would be close to zero — a condom has to used and the person’s viral load must be so low as to be undetectable.

Source: Positive Living Society