Our Mask

We all wear a mask. Not everything is revealed to the public eye. Not everybody knows what we are exactly feeling and what we are exactly thinking. Up to now, HIV/AIDS has a stigma in the society. May it be the “gay plague”, the drug addict’s curse or simply a “promiscuous” disease, it still haunts and scares a lot of people. Even though there are breakthroughs with treatment and that the disease can be preventable by protection and awareness of how it spreads, still the world can still be mean. Although the majority of the nations in the world have laws that have been enacted to protect those who are infected however, the general public still is careful in disclosing because not all can be trusted with the vital information such as his or her HIV status.

Somebody recently asked me again if it can be identified if a person has HIV/AIDS by just merely looking at the person. I will reiterate that no one can identify it by merely staring at a person or looking at his symptoms. It is part of the human society to speculate and judge a person by its appearance however, even though certain illnesses don’t necessary pinpoint to HIV/AIDS. Only the HIV test can really identify it. It is only by then that doctors can exactly diagnose if the illnesses that one person has are HIV related or not.

There are good and bad sides of it though. The good side is that since HIV/AIDS doesn’t have a concrete evidence on one’s appearance, persons living with HIV (PLHIV) can live a normal life without prejudice and discrimination. They don’t have to succumb to the harsh reality of discrimination by their peers in their communities. They can still be functional in their society and get the jobs that are apt to their skills and potentials. The bad side of it is that unless the person knows his status through HIV testing, any individual, for that matter, is a potential carrier of the disease. The person, can be anybody, a relative, a neighbor, a life partner, work colleague, a woman in the bus, the woman who regularly runs on the treadmill. The disease, even though is silent within, is vicious and ready to attack. Anybody can be a victim and can be infected if preventive measures are not taken. The disease can easily be transferred by accident or by simply not knowing the consequences of a certain activity or behavior.

We all wear a mask. Not everything is revealed to the public eye. But we can definitely take off our masks. We can take it off when we need to be open to our loved ones and close friends. We need to take it off when when we are in danger of harming other people. We know that it is our responsibility to do so when we are faced with situations that we can easily transfer our disease to another individual. We can also temporarily take our masks off when we are helping other PLHIV’s in with their new “journey” or when we are doing our own HIV/AIDS advocacies to help with education and awareness and treatment.

Time can only tell when the stigma will be gone. Everything is being done for us, from the cure and from all HIV/AIDS programs worldwide. Soon, we can all take off our masks and throw them away permanently so other people can see our real and true faces.



 Credits: 
www.freedigitalphotos.net


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