sth bout HIV/AIDS

just got home..

just came back from a HIV/AIDS talk at monash clayton..it's so-not-me to travel far n down to clayton for such a talk, but some of us(e.g. cyew n chunpeng) were somehow involved in organising the talk n so i did force myself to go.."bei har min"..heh =p

attendance wasnt impressive, or even satisfactory i thk..but we had four good speakers -- a doctor who talked bout global HIV/AIDS n three med students talking bout their researches in HIV/AIDS in Botswana, Malaysia n Thailand respectively...

for instance, Botswana has got the 2nd highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world i.e. 1 in 4 ppl in the population has got HIV/AIDS...i thk that's a really really scary figure to imagine how bad it is..1 in 4!! n u dun wan to know how many kids in Botswana r infected with HIV..n they oso talked bout young gals dropping out n ending up sleeping with older men who refuse to use condoms, mothers transmitting HIV to their babies etc...*arhhh* while in msia, the prevalence is highest among IV drug users..that msian med student even went out there on streets, under the bridges n into the markets to reach for those IV drug users for the purpose of her research -- i thk that's really really brave of her..sometimes HIV+ve patients knew that they r HIV+ve, but they just couldnt b bothered(it sounds unbelievable rite)..our own health may seem really precious n important to us, esp those who r in medicine..however to some ppl there's sth else which mean a lot more to them such as food, money, shelter, emotional or spiritual satisfaction...then the other med student shared her personal experience in thailand, where she got two minor cuts in her fingers while doing manicure..n after realising her risk of contracting HIV she asked for a HIV test soon after returning to aus..n she needed to wait for a week for the result..imagine wat she has gone thru in that dreadful week i.e. wat if the test is positive?! wat to do? who should i tell? parents? how bout frens? my husband/partner might b positive as well? i thk it's really scary..*gou li*

everything we heard bout HIV/AIDS is pretty depressing n disheartening...there's still a lot more to do...

anyway..did like this quote at the end of the talk..
"Discrimination is worse than HIV itself.
Without discrimination, people with HIV/AIDS are more than 50% 'cured'."

so true..worth to thk bout.....