Live-in maid has AIDS

My cousin tells me that her maid has AIDS and I am shocked. ‘So what do you plan to do?’ I ask her and she says that she is in dilemma because she is undecided. It is the question of humanity versus responsibility towards her family Her maid was not well for some time, so she took her to the doctor, who suggested that she take some rest and then told her in confidence that her maid has AIDS. She consulted several of her friends and most of them (including me) advised her to fire the maid immediately. We are afraid that she might cut herself during cooking and may pass on her virus. It is a different thing when we were living alone, but with a responsibility towards family and children, it is difficult to take any risk. That was my first impression. On a second thought, is it right to fire the maid just because she has the disease that we cannot handle? What if she were a close family member instead? Would we toss her into the streets and stone her? Would we burn everything in the house that she touched? And what happens to her? Wouldn’t she squirm from rejection and shame, with fear crippling her psychologically and leading her to an immature death? Choosing to support the maid after termination of her job may be a better option but it may not work very well for everybody, it is only a matter of choice. When we allow social pressures to make our choice than we do it out of guilt, or sacrifice without realizing the cost to ourselves or to our loved ones, eventually it drains us completely; emotionally and physically. On doing a little research and debate, I realized that I am really misinformed about this disease. First of all, there's a distinction between being HIV positive and having full-blown AIDS. By the time it morphs into AIDS, the person may not be well enough to handle that kind of job and might require evaluation then. The most common ways to contract AIDS is through unprotected sex and drug use (sharing needles). Nowadays people with HIV Positive can live for years with good medication and proper healthcare and that can easily extend to 10-20 years before her daily life is compromised. HIV virus isn't transmitted through normal physical touch, kissing, sharing the same toilet or eating from the same plate. It is transferred through blood, through sexual contact, or by sharing needles and breastfeeding. If we fired all HIV Positive people they would die of starvation rather than the virus! In the world we live in, we have an obligation to be educated on the basic facts of HIV, as it is a fact of life. On this day “World AIDS Day’ December 1st, let us be educated and not be afraid of this disease because ignorance emits fears, and fears are contagious. HIV can be avoided if we are careful. It is important to practice safe sex. It is important to make sure of use of a single, disposable needle in doctor’s clinic. It is important to make sure that we don’t have HIV before donating blood. With proper education about its prevention and medications, we can avoid the panic reactions and discrimination and choose a better options to live the life of dignity and happiness. Sincere thanks to the members of ‘Comfortable in my own shell’ to Pallavi Bhattacharya, Shannon Hill, Nina Choudhari, Madhumita Chakraborty, James Smith, Jack Huber and Kathy B. Thank you for sharing your views.

Comics with bold messages like HIV/AIDS

During my growing up days, I found it easier to read comics because they had lot of pictures and it ended faster. I would enjoy comics like Tintin, Archies, Phantom, Batman and many more. Many of my friends discouraged me from reading those comics debating that it murdered the English grammar but since it was easier to understand, with everything left to imagination, and it worked for me. Comics are not merely for kids any more. There are new set of comics, in market nowadays, like - "Josh Mein Hosh" (Passion with Sense), "Khoon Ka Katra" (Just a drop of blood), "Savdhan Senior" (On your guard, senior) and "Pyar Ka Packet" (A packet of love) that are interwoven with messages on HIV/AIDS, and conveys the message that it is wrong to presume that "girlfriends must be meek and submissive and that a sexually aggressive woman is bad. The aim of these comics is to change social attitude and dispel the popular notion of masculinity that makes young men in urban slums indulge in violence against women and use condoms only when having a relationship with sex workers. There has been an urgency to bring out these educational comic books because in 2006, about 30 percent of HIV infections were reported in the 15 to 20 age group. Existing literature shows that young Indian men subscribe to norms of masculinity that lead to risky behavior and to change this, discussions were held with young men to understand their media habits, message retention from HIV campaigns, myths and misconceptions.. Participants were encouraged to relate real life incidents so that these comics echoed true stories. The draft stories were pre-tested in discussions with young men in urban slums and their feedback was incorporated in the final version The state and district AIDS control societies in Andhra Pradesh and Delhi have integrated elements of their campaign into the comic book series and have endorsed the products The Population Council and four other NGOS have brought out this set of comics, in four languages - Bengali, English, Hindi and Telugu. Several NGOs have been approached to integrate this package within existing outreach activities and to distribute these comics Will the illitrate population show any interest in such comics? Time will tell.