7 News Belize

Coming To Terms With AIDS
posted (December 1, 2014)
An Art and Health fair was held today at the Battlefield Park to commemorate World AIDS Day. The objective is to further educate the public about the virus and to encourage people to get tested.

It is a mammoth task to accomplish through one fair but health officials say it will take more than fairs and conferences: It will take a cultural shift in the way the virus viewed and treated.

Margaret Bradley, VCT Coordinator, Ministry of Health
"What we do, we try to integrate the services more, like we don't only test at the clinic, but we also test at each health center if possible and then we also go into work place, like Grace Kennedy, Scotia Bank and other places would encourage us to go in and we go in and we test, so most and all staff would get tested. The symptoms for HIV/AIDS is almost like any other illness; it's like a cold, sometime you have oral thrust in your mouth and then it doesn't only stays on your tongue, but all inside and it goes to the back and that causes us not to eat properly, so you find that our nutritional needs is not met. Again, you have, as a protocol, people who are diagnose with tuberculosis should be tested for HIV and likewise HIV should be tested for tuberculosis."

Arthur Usher, Communications and Programs Officer, NAC
"In terms of the age groups, we are looking at persons fifteen years and above; that's the main cohort. There is a sub cohort to that that you would say fifteen to nineteen in terms of young ladies and twenty-five and above in terms of men. The situation right now is that women is getting tested more than men, just because women come into the hospital more than men and as part of the maternal health care system, they automatic get a HIV test. Men on the other hand, we don't really go to the hospital unless we are next to dying and that's an issue, so we are trying to get men into a better habit of coming in at least twice a year to do checks and that kind of thing."

Allister Barrow, Participant
"I think that they are scared. I mean they are scared to know their status because then if you are scared and you have that mindset that you don't have to take HIV test, I mean you are fully confidence in yourself that you are negative. But you could never tell, you could have confidence in that until you come to take your test, then you will know. The reason why you come to take a HIV test is because you want to know your status, you want to know where you stand in society because if you take your HIV test, you will know that you are either negative or positive and if you are positive, you keep it to yourself - you don't pass it on to anybody else, but if you are negative, you stay negative and protect yourself at all times."

Angela Wilshire, Participant
"The first of December, I know that it is World AIDS Day and I usually come and do my test and apart from that I love the aspect of the educational background on educating the public on AIDS."

Arthur Usher, Communications and Programs Officer, NAC
"In terms of the cultural aspect and how people view HIV, they main information I want to give out is that HIV is not a death sentence. People can live with it if you adhere to your medications, you eat well, dieting - all of these things and so for people to really be stigmatizing people with HIV, its (lack of a better word) 1980s - in terms of not understanding."

241 new infections were recorded in 2013.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize