I found these stories online. These are true stories.
I used to know Josephat and his lovely family of a wife, 2 daughters and a son. He used to live in a town 1,000Km from the city. The town is on the Tanzania Zambia border. He used to come to the city many times during the year on his pickup van but when I did not see him for over a year I inquired from his cousin. The cousin informed me that he had a motor accident on the Dar es Salaam Zambia Highway. He died on the spot. That was 6 years ago. I had forgotten about him and family till yesterday when I met his cousin again. So how are your in-law and the lovely children? He answered, "Sad, sad, sad.". The first daughter who was dad's child, after the death of her father wanted to get married immediately. She was looking for somebody to comfort her I guess. The man happened to be from Zambia. His family was unknown to her mother. Her mother strongly advised her not to marry the man from a neighboring country from a family that was unknown to her. In fact she refused her to marry the man and threatened her. "I will disown you if you marry him." The mother came home one evening to find the girl unconscious. The packet of chloroquine tables and the bottle from which she had drank the beer from to wash the tablets down her throat were sitting on her bedside table. A common way to commit suicide in this part of the world is to swallow an overdose of ant malaria tablets and wash them down with a few beers. (Do not try it!) The girl was rushed to hospital and after a few hours of attempts to save her life and the life of her baby (she was pregnant) she and the baby were pronounced dead.
The gentleman informed me that after the death of Agnes her first daughter the mother's blood pressure which was always high went higher and higher. She died of severe hypertension a few months later. Hoping to hear some good news, I asked him. "So how are the other children- Joseph and Silvia? He informed that Joseph was working but now he has been laid off. He has HIV/AIDS. He is sick and wasted. "I think he is going to die any time from now." "Silvia, mom's beautiful child- well she married and they have two children but her and her husband are also sick. The husband must have infected her. He is more advanced in the disease than her. She is ill, has lost a lot of weight. I see her at work but she is going to stop working any time from now. You know they do not like to employ sick people especially when they are suffering from HIV/AIDS." This morning I thought of what Josephat's cousin had narrated to me. I thought of the three deaths that had already occurred in the family and the others that are to follow. The father had died by a road accident, the daughter committed suicide, the mother of hypertension. HIV/AIDS is now taking over from there. The only son they had is dying from HIV/AIDS, the second and last daughter and last child is dying from HIV/AIDS and so is her husband. The whole family will be gone in the next few years. When the last daughter and her husband die they will leave behind their two children who will be orphaned. I wonder who will take care of them? In many cases orphans are looked after by their grandmother and grandfather, but these 2 are also gone. It is a sad, sad, sad, story. Don't you think so?
My neighbor's son goes to college in Colorado, a big party school. I guess his roommate had a one nighter with this one girl. He woke up and went to the bathroom. On the mirror, written in makeup it read "I hope you have fun with aids." he waited however long he had to wait to get a test, and he tested positive. Isn't that murder if she knew she had aids?
Aids Victim Kimberly Bergalis Has A Sad Story, But An Uncertain Message
COMMENTARY
October 7, 1991|By MINDY CAMERON, Seattle Times
Kimberly Bergalis made a painful journey from her Florida home to Washington, D.C., the other day. She is dying of AIDS and has one final wish: to see Congress make a law that requires health-care workers to be tested for AIDS.
Bergalis is gaunt and frail. She is obviously in pain. She also is still quite lovely and so very young, only 23.
She is a powerful symbol, but of what?
Bergalis is believed to have contracted AIDS from her dentist, Dr. David Acer. Four other patients also are thought to have been infected with AIDS by Acer, who died of AIDS-related causes a year ago.
She is filled with rage. Earlier this year she wrote a letter to Florida health officials in which she blamed Acer and ``every single one of you bastards. Anyone that knew Dr. Acer was infected and had full-blown AIDS and stood by not doing a damn thing about it. ``
Her fury and the anger and resentment of her family are understandable. Many of us might react in much the same way, though fewer would use that anger to fuel a national campaign to change laws.
The outspoken and courageous Bergalis is rightfully another powerful symbol of the ravages of AIDS. But she has become more. In the political whirlwind of evolving health policies regarding AIDS, Kimberly Bergalis has become a symbol of something that needs no symbol -- the patient who contracts AIDS from a health-care provider.
In that regard Bergalis is an anecdote, an aberration, one of only five -- not many thousands.
In the decade we have lived -- and died -- with AIDS, the five Acer patients are the only documented cases of patients getting the disease from a doctor, dentist, nurse, or other health professional.
In that same decade 122,905 people died of AIDS. Another 191,000 have been diagnosed as having the disease. And medical experts estimate that 1 million Americans are infected with HIV, the virus that usually develops into AIDS. Many of them will die in this decade.
Those numbers are real people, too. Nearly all of them contracted AIDS through sexual activity with an infected partner or sharing an AIDS- contaminated needle for injection of drugs.
Education about safe sex practices, needle-exchange programs, and scrupulous attention to sterile procedures and precautions, such as the use of gloves by persons exposed to blood or other body fluids, are the proven methods to prevent the spread of AIDS.
Yet, largely because of Bergalis` crusade and the impact she has had on ever-present public fears and misunderstandings about the disease, Congress is considering mandating AIDS testing for all health professionals who perform invasive procedures.
The bill also would permit testing of patients without their consent.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. William Dannemeyer, R-Calif., is called the Kimberly Bergalis Patient and Health Providers Protection Act.
The impetus for the Bergalis bill -- or some other mandatory-testing law -- is easy to understand even without the haunting visage of the dying young woman.
Should health-care workers and patients be tested for AIDS?
The quick answer, the intuitive one, is: Yes, of course. AIDS is a deadly disease, and all parties engaged in procedures that could lead to its transmission from one to another ought to know in advance whether the disease is present.
But the facts argue otherwise and support opponents` contention that mandatory testing is aimed at a problem that doesn`t really exist.
They say it will shift our attention and financial resources away from what we already know works -- education and preventive measures -- and from research into causes and treatment.
Resolving the differences between the two views is critical to developing public-health policies that work to reduce AIDS.
I`m not yet certain that mandatory testing is wrong, but I am certain we are heading down that path for the wrong reasons. Good public policy does not evolve out of anecdotal evidence. It is shaped by informed debate and careful analysis.
And the truth is, as Dr. C. Everett Koop, former surgeon general, told the congressional hearing, the risk of being infected from a doctor is ``so remote that it may never be measured.``
You and I are twice as likely to die in an airplane crash and 42 times as likely to die in an automobile accident as we are to be infected by our doctor.
We can -- and do -- feel profound sorrow for Kimberly Bergalis and the thousands of other AIDS sufferers she represents. But we should not make laws because of one woman`s rage over an untimely and unjust death.
Personal story
Hi, it's me B again. It’s been a few months now, almost 6 months since I found out that I am HIV positive. It’s been a few hard months. Going through all of the emotions, not knowing. I think that is the scariest part for me. Well a lot has happened. I have not told my family ye, I do not think I can bring myself to that as yet. Me and my ex bf broke up, the guy that I got it from. found out that he was still fooling around with other girls. But I don’t care, I met an amazing guy, he is not HIV positive. I told him, he knows. He has been very supportive if it hasn’t been for him, I don’t know if ill even be able to type this message today. But I am, so I believe God has bigger plans for me, than I had for myself. My new bf is amazing. Sometimes I get scared, that I might infect him. If that ever happens I don’t know if ill be able to live with myself. He has been my strength on this earth. At times I find myself getting mad at myself. For the fact that I didn’t save myself for a man like him. He is everything. They say you should see Gods eyes in his, and I do. before him I thought I will never be happy again. I still cry, mostly because I am scared. But his love makes me strong.
There's a club called 'AIDS' awareness that needs more members. If you would like to join, please.
