Sri Lanka: Taboo reinforces ignorance about HIV
August 5, 2010 08:54 pm
“If you have AIDS, you become an immoral person overnight,”
said Chamara Sumanapala, a social commentator at the
UNAIDS noted that HIV prevalence in
David Bridger, Country Coordinator for UNAIDS in Sri
Lanka, told IRIN/PlusNews that the government needed to develop an early
warning system that would alert it to any sudden rise in HIV infections.
“For example, if drug users in Sri Lanka were to shift
from smoking heroin to injecting, then there is potential for the rapid spread
of the HI-virus and our prevention efforts would need to rapidly expand to get
ahead of this,” he said. “I am pleased to see that the Ministry of Health,
through the National STI [sexually transmitted infection]/AIDS Control
Programme, is headed well in this direction.”
High-risk groups, like drug users and commercial sex
workers, should also be reached with effective prevention activities. “This is
a part of the response that has been overlooked, and it is also one of the most
challenging parts of the response, as a number of the most at-risk groups are
highly stigmatized, and this makes prevention difficult.”
“Living a dead life”
Those living with HIV face daily discrimination. Sampath
Gunarathna, 28, quit his job in
Ashanthi Samarasighne, 31, also from
Dr Chamil Jinadasa, an independent health worker in
“People are really worried that they will be socially
stigmatized among their families and friends,” he told IRIN/PlusNews. “This is
a major concern; [it] increases the risk of further infections.”
Education needed
Although there was some awareness about HIV among urban
populations, Jinadasa stressed that HIV was still a taboo subject in rural
areas. “There is an understanding about HIV, and how it is sexually
[transmitted], but people have very limited understanding about alternative
ways it can spread - for example, they do not know that it can spread through
sharing needles.”
Jinadasa said
Bridger of UNAIDS said the grant would be used for
strengthening prevention efforts among the groups most at-risk of HIV,
providing ARV treatment, and expanding HIV surveillance systems.
PlusNews