TODAY is World Aids Day and the message across Guernsey and the UK is ‘respect and protect’.
The day came about in 1988 to tackle the increasing problem and raise awareness. The theme this year highlights the responsibilities people have to change attitudes to HIV and to help stop its spread.
In Guernsey, 33 people were diagnosed with HIV between 1999 and 2008 and 23 are still being cared for in the island. A Health and Social Services spokesman highlighted the realities of living with the disease in a place such as Guernsey.
‘It is often a life of isolation and loneliness and this may be magnified for individuals living in a small community. Respecting people living with HIV, treating them fairly and challenging prejudice is an important message for us all.’
A sufferer said: ‘This is such a beautiful island. It’s my home and it’s full of such great people, but it’s a small place – still quite conservative. People can be quick to judge others and people worry what their friends and family think.’
HSSD is encouraging people to be open and respectful about the virus so people with HIV/Aids can talk more openly, which would help to lift them from what can be a lonely, secretive existence.
‘Instead of the support, sympathy and love that most people who are diagnosed with a life-threatening disease receive, we are ostracised and rejected,’ said a female suffering from HIV.
Dr Susan Wilson, who set up the Tumaini charity to help Aids orphans in Kagera, Tanzania, said people tended to be complacent because the island had so few people with the condition.
‘In Rwanda, every third patient is an Aids sufferer. But Guernsey is making a huge impact on the global problem through the work of Tumaini,’ she said.
The charity has already sent £238,000 to the country this year.
‘I saw how hopeless life was for the widows and orphans. Their lives were really awful and now they have hope – and that’s the wonderful thing that Guernsey is giving to the population of Kagera.’
nÊFor more information, see www.tumainifund.org.uk or send an email to mfukowatumaini@yahoo.com.
Article posted on 1st December, 2008 - 2.29pm
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