#WisdomWednesday: Living positively with HIV/Aids
In light of World Aids Day this weekend, the Herald reveals some statistics and spoke to a professional nurse about living with HIV/ Aids.
As we approach World Aids Day on Saturday, 1 December, the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) released its 2018 HIV/Aids statistics.
South Africa has the biggest and most high-profile HIV epidemic in the world and the number of people in South Africa living with HIV/Aids is quite disturbing.
This is what the statistics revealed:
• 7,2 million people live with HIV
• 18,8 per cent adult HIV prevalence (ages 15–49)
• 270 000 new HIV infections
• 110 000 Aids-related deaths
• 61 per cent adults on antiretroviral treatment*
• 58 per cent children on antiretroviral living with HIV*
*All adults/ children living with HIV
Despite these alarming statistics, Sister Lydia Nkutha-Radebe, manager of the Medical Unit at Lenmed Private Hospital said contracting HIV/Aids is not a death sentence.
Lydia said those living with the disease can still lead a normal life and defeat the stigma.
“When a person is diagnosed, he or she should get counselling to prepare them mentally for the road ahead,” she said.
She added that patients will go though various stages before they accept their HIV/Aids status.
“But, eventually a person has to accept and has to live with it and once you do that, you will realise that this is not a death sentence; you will lead a normal life. Do not hide it, because that is conforming to the stigma that will end up killing you,” Lydia advised.
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