HIV perceptions during childhood and during undergraduate university studies
Since I was child I used to hear about HIV (or SIDA in French language since I did my high school studies at a Fench speaking school in Lebanon).
People would talk about HIV in different ways and reflect about it in different ways.
Chady, my elder brother, had a book about SIDA, written in Arabic, with cover page showing a dead skeleton. I was around 13-14 years old, so I thought it was a thriller book at that time.
Well actually, a couple of times my father used to say that HIV patients have to go to the Ministry of Health in Beirut to get their medicine by themselves from a special room for drug dispencary, and of course who would go there and people and all the ministry staff would recognise patients coming into this room, and again I had no single idea what was the HIV disease about, except what I used to hear and read, it stayed as an abstract topic for me.
During my undergraduate studies, I studied HIV as a virus and of course who would care at that time for the virus in a context like Lebanon where SIDA is concerned as non-Lebanese related disease. People would say "we have to make this test before getting married since it is compulsary" but otherwise you don't talk about it.
During my training at the hospital, we used to test blood samples for HIV, using serology testing, so the person can not see the HIV virus but can see the antibodies reaction and this is it.
Also, we would not see the patients coming but their blood samples and the test.
One good friend of mine, asked me one time if I can test his blood for HIV because he had unprotected sex with someone he does not know her and they met by chance at a party in Beirut, and he suspects she was HIV positive. I was laughing about it and could not understand his anxiety, but anyone we decided that he waits for around 3.5 months before we run the test. When he went to pay for the HIV test at the cashier, it was embarrassing moment for everyone since the cashier person knows me and I am joining my "friend", and the whole scenario was running in a religious based hospital.
At the same hospital, we used to test strip dancers on weekly basis, because they are foreigners and the general secuirty in Beirut has strict sero-screening rules on them.
I still recall the phlebotomist how she used to stigmatise them each week they come, and how she would have judgmental attitude towards them while taking blood sample.
It is quite interesting how HIV is perceived all the time.
People would talk about HIV in different ways and reflect about it in different ways.
Chady, my elder brother, had a book about SIDA, written in Arabic, with cover page showing a dead skeleton. I was around 13-14 years old, so I thought it was a thriller book at that time.
Well actually, a couple of times my father used to say that HIV patients have to go to the Ministry of Health in Beirut to get their medicine by themselves from a special room for drug dispencary, and of course who would go there and people and all the ministry staff would recognise patients coming into this room, and again I had no single idea what was the HIV disease about, except what I used to hear and read, it stayed as an abstract topic for me.
During my undergraduate studies, I studied HIV as a virus and of course who would care at that time for the virus in a context like Lebanon where SIDA is concerned as non-Lebanese related disease. People would say "we have to make this test before getting married since it is compulsary" but otherwise you don't talk about it.
During my training at the hospital, we used to test blood samples for HIV, using serology testing, so the person can not see the HIV virus but can see the antibodies reaction and this is it.
Also, we would not see the patients coming but their blood samples and the test.
One good friend of mine, asked me one time if I can test his blood for HIV because he had unprotected sex with someone he does not know her and they met by chance at a party in Beirut, and he suspects she was HIV positive. I was laughing about it and could not understand his anxiety, but anyone we decided that he waits for around 3.5 months before we run the test. When he went to pay for the HIV test at the cashier, it was embarrassing moment for everyone since the cashier person knows me and I am joining my "friend", and the whole scenario was running in a religious based hospital.
At the same hospital, we used to test strip dancers on weekly basis, because they are foreigners and the general secuirty in Beirut has strict sero-screening rules on them.
I still recall the phlebotomist how she used to stigmatise them each week they come, and how she would have judgmental attitude towards them while taking blood sample.
It is quite interesting how HIV is perceived all the time.
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