War Against HIV (WAH)

Dear readers, 

I actually do not remember where I sent this piece of writing. I guess I sent it to join a competition. I found it worth to share. So enjoyyyyyy! I will try to make a new post once a week!

            “You have been infected by HIV, now you have AIDS as well. I’m so sorry to tell you that you have less than twelve months left to live.”

            What would you feel if that that was said to you or to someone close to you? Sadness and hopeless, those two words maybe the best words to describe what will you feel. You are going to lose energy. You are going to develop sores on your body. You will lose your appetite. Your body will find it more and more difficult to fight infections from all kinds of other diseases. No matter how rich and important you are, if HIV is inside your body, the first thing you feel will be that there will be nothing that you can do anymore. You have to face it: this is not going to be an easy twelve months for you and your family and friends.

            According to UNAIDS 2009 report, worldwide some 60 million people have been infected, with some 25 million deaths. More than five young people are infected by HIV every minute worldwide. In Indonesia, more than 54.3% of infected people are young people. Scientist said that young people have the highest risk to be infected by HIV and AIDS because we are in the transition between childhood and adulthood. In this phase most of us want to try something new without thinking about the risk.

            These are some myths about HIV:

·         People with HIV will be die soon. That is just a myth! Although there is still no way to cure it, there is a medicine called antiretroviral that can slow down the spread of HIV in the body. It will not cure the disease, but if infected people could have the medicine routinely, and have the treatment, they can live like normal people.

·         HIV only infects gay and people who consume drugs. The fact, HIV can infect anybody. So everyone has to be careful and make themselves secure from HIV.

·         HIV cannot spread via oral sex. This is the most dangerous myth, because people with HIV sometimes continue to practise oral sex, and without realising it, they infect their partners.

Those myths can be so dangerous if most people still believe them. We have to make sure that people know the facts.

As young people, what we can do to have a war against HIV? Some of us will say that there is nothing we can do, or anything we do, it will be nothing because HIV will always spread everywhere. We have to change our mindset. The data shows that most of people with HIV are young people; it shows that we are not so far from the virus. We can say that the virus is among us.

The best way for us to combat the virus is by prevention. These are some ways that we can do:

·         Prevention by education. In this program we can tell younger students around us to be careful of HIV, and not to waste their lives by trying harmful activity that can lead them to HIV.

·         Street smart program.  We have to be a trigger for this program. Ask as many people as you can ask to go to the street and teach the street kids how to prevent HIV.

·         Peer to peer prevention is so important. We can hold a meeting with a role model to make other young people aware with HIV. Not only with a role model, but also with people who have HIV, so the participants could feel how difficult it is to live with HIV so they will not try it.

Those kinds of program are simple, but they will be so powerful because we can reach a lot of young generation in one vision to fight HIV. One of the most important ways to prevent it is by helps from parent. A research from CDC (Center of Disease Control and Prevention) told that the earlier parents have told their children about values and sex orientation, it will decrease the risk from HIV.

Beside the prevention, we can help the people with HIV by visiting them and giving them support. As we know, some of them don’t have a long time anymore to live. By giving them support, it will be so worthy for them. They will feel humanized by our action, and for us, it will make us feel good to see a smile on their faces.

HIV is a totally dangerous virus; it makes a lot of people afraid about it. As a young generation, we could be in the closest position with the virus. That is why; we have to start moving from now on. As a trigger to declare a war against HIV.

Leave comments or thought below!