Оглавление
TJ Wicker. Finding Hope, Spirituality and Faith
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1. HIV Stigma
Chapter 2. HIV Discrimination
Chapter 3. Shame
Chapter 4. Guilt
Chapter 5. Fear & Anxiety
Chapter 6. Hope & Wellness
Chapter 7. Authentic Power
Chapter 8. Truth
Chapter 9. Spirituality
Chapter 10. Faith/Religion
Conclusion
Отрывок из книги
One of the most complex and complicated health problems confronting the world today, is the Human Immuno Deficiency (HIV) infection and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) disease. The National Commission on AIDS in 1991, classified AIDS as the deadliest sexually transmitted disease ever to confront humanity. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. The virus was first discovered by Luc Montagnier at Pasteur Institute in Paris and Robert Gallo at the National Institute of Health in the United States. Since the virus was first discovered in the United States, it has spread to all parts of the Globe like wildfire. Since the start of the epidemic, an estimated 77.3 million people have become infected with HIV and 35.4 million people have died of AIDS-related illnesses, but there is hope!
This is, of course, a terrific thing. Newfound life and hope rescued from the former reality of a certain death looming somewhere in the unpredictable future. However, unforeseen longevity has wrought its own set of complications, including survivor guilt, serious side effects from long-term HIV infection and the toxicity of early powerful drugs, loneliness, despair, and the isolation that comes from seeing most of your peer group die before you. Too many long-term survivors get caught in a financial trap, having been forced to go on long-term disability or public assistance benefits when they were too ill to work, and now finding themselves with large gaps in work experience, lacking current job skills, and without savings as they near retirement age. And of course, stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV persists, even within our own communities.
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The big question remains, while HIV still exists, will we ever be able to completely end the stigma that surrounds it? There’s no easy answer, but I believe the new U equals U movement is one source of great hope. U equals U, or U=U, stands for “undetectable equals un-transmittable”. It represents the major consensus of the medical community, that when HIV is undetectable in the body, it cannot be transmitted. That means a person living with HIV who has an undetectable viral load cannot transmit the virus to anyone else.
Today, the U=U consensus statement has been signed by 766 organizations in 95 different countries. And for World AIDS Day this year, Canada became the first country to sign on to the statement. It is my sincere hope that more countries will soon follow. The HIV stigma still exists today in every corner of the world, but there is hope. There is hope in all the work that has been done to raise awareness and breakdown this stigma. There is hope in the U=U movement and there is hope in all of the people who continue to live their lives with HIV because we won’t let the virus, or the stigma that surrounds it, hold us back. I am a firm in the belief that finding one’s spirituality and the meaning of our life dramatically benefits those afflicted with the virus, in addition to those who are in-directly, or directly in contact with someone that is positive.
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