Abstract:

The prevalence of Aids in South Africa has pushed us to painting a picture of a “friendly HIV/Aids”, and thus eliminated the fear that is crucially necessary. Socially (practically) South Africans are more exposed to Aids than to condoms (and other preventions). Condoms are plenty but we are shy. We are shy to talk about them, we are shy to get them, and we are shy to use them. This may be because there are stigmas attached to them, greater than those attached to Aids itself. Psychologically we are more exposed to Treatment than the reality of the virus and its effects. When we imagine ourselves being infected, the first thing that comes to our minds is the taking of treatment rather than suffering and "the possibility of death". So, there is more comfort towards Aids than prevention because treatment is regarded as the worst consequence. We have become numb to the true danger of Aids. If we start showing people reality, we can change the status quo. Aids is manageable but it is intensive, which is similar to smoking and secondary smoking. We need to show graphics of this killer. It will take real fear for people to be really careful. We should not allow the next entire generation to also be vulnerable to this disease by the superfluous shielding of the dignity of those who are already infected. This can be done within the confines of our National Health Act and without compromising human rights. Activists need to make this sacrifice for our future. A lot of people don’t know what AIDS really is. They have never seen the extremes of it and the cruelty it has. No one is openly and publicly telling the true personal pain of living with AIDS but everybody is talking about treatment and survival. If we attach fear to our prevention efforts, we can save millions of people and South African Rands.'

Keywords: AIDS: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the name of the fatal clinical condition that results from infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which progressively damages the body's ability to protect itself from disease organisms.

References:

[1].     Department of Health. Annual Report 2013-2014. Pretoria: NDoH; 2014.

[2].     Department of Health. Annual Report 2014-2016. Pretoria: NDoH; 2016.

[3].     Male circumcision: Global trends and determinants of prevalence, safety and acceptability (PDF). World Health Organization 2007.

[4].     Statistics South Africa Mid-year population estimates 2017 www.statssa.gov.za

[5].     UNAIDS. UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic,

http://www.unaids.org/globalreport/documents/20101123_GlobalReport_full_en.pdf (2010, accessed 25 September 2017).

[6].     UNAIDS. UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic,

[7].     http://www.unaids.org/globalreport/documents/20101123_GlobalReport_full_en.pdf (2014, accessed 25 September 2017).

[8].     UNAIDS. UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic,

http://www.unaids.org/globalreport/documents/20101123_GlobalReport_full_en.pdf (2016, accessed 25 September 2017).

[9].     Van Dyke, A. 2005. HIVAids Care & Counselling: A Multidisciplinary Approach. 3rd ed. Cape Town: Pearson Education.