A popular radio station in Lagos, Nigeria(fondly referred to as Naija) had this advert which caught my attention. I was 17 years old and had just returned home
after my Senior school certificate exam (equivalent of SAT), at a boarding
school I had attended for 6 years. My
major responsibility as the first daughter of 4 kids(2 boys and 2 girls) was to
help to manage my mum’s chemist and gift shop at a police barracks mammy
market. It was an exciting experience
for me as this was my 1st interaction with real life outside the
“cosy” walls of my secondary school. It was on one of those days at the shop
that I heard the said advert on radio, it went thus”If I gave you a gun to kill
yourself would you? So why do you go around having unprotected sex…AIDS IS REAL”
I’ve always pondered why that advert compared suicide with
unprotected sex…and its link to AIDS.I’ve also seen many billboards saying
AIDS no dey show for face…this means it’s not something you can discern
through physical appearance of the carrier.
Does this then mean I have to go around with my HIV-ve test
results from the hospital and present it anytime I’m faced with any sex related
issue also asking my partner for presentation of same.
I once heard about a clinical attendant at the hospital
where my mum worked as a nurse who while clearing the bin was mistakenly
pricked by a needle which had been used on a patient who was known tro be HIV
positive. I wonder if this attendant had
sentenced herself to death knowingly
O.k what about the woman who was pregnant with child but was
discovered to have been bugged by the virus because of her husbands
unfaithfulness. It’s sad enough to know
the woman is infected but what is the fate of her infected unborn baby. If you
were that baby who do you blame for your predicament, mum or dad.
The story of this young virgin was also very painful as I
said she was a young virgin but the babe was pronounced to have full blown AIDS
when she did the routine medical checkup for admission into the university.
Investigation later pointed to transfusion of unscreened blood of a relative
some years back.
I can go on and on and if I asked for your own stories I
know you will have so many but what has been your reaction to all you know
about the incurable HIV/AIDS.
What happens to the broken dreams, buried songs,unwritten
books just to mention a few of what is lost due emotion and psychological
trauma. As I grew older I got to understand that the killing of yourself as
used in the radio advert was more of internal death rather than mortal.
I have seen bright, intelligent, young people become extremely scared of doing the HIV status test, they are already weighing their
options and looking like the future is done with. I mean its not like they’ve seen the HIV
tests results but these guys are just scared to the bones.
We are an open magazine we want to hear your own stories, we
want to know what you feel/think, what are your views about this epidemic which
is fast moving through our continents, our world…it’s the same disease…the same
effects allover….we’d like to hear from you.
Ti.
