HE was a co-curricular activity (CCA) coach, then, one day, he was told that the school no longer wanted his services.
The reason: The school had found out that he was HIV-positive.
It was his first taste of workplace discrimination since being diagnosed as HIV-positive five years ago.
John (not his real name) told The New Paper: 'My employer told me that the school had received an anonymous tip-off about my ailment and that the principal didn't want me to continue coaching at the school.
'I was to stop immediately.'
The 28-year-old had joined a private company, which provides enrichment programmes to schools, as an assistant coach in 2006.
His employer was aware of his HIV status.
John agreed to tell his story on condition that the school was not approached for comment.
Action for Aids (AFA) confirmed the incident, which occurred earlier this year.
John's is one of three cases of discrimination against HIV-infected patients in the past six months reported to AFA through a new online service.
SUGGESTION TO STOP
After the incident, John's employer suggested that he stop teaching for a while and that he take on other duties in the company.
A month later, while his boss was at another school, which John had also taught at, the staff members there asked his boss if John was HIV-positive.
John said: 'The word that my boss had hired a HIV-positive trainer had obviously spread within the industry. I was worried that my illness would be made public.'
Not wanting to put his employer in a difficult position, John resigned a few months later.
He said: 'It was a disappointing experience. I hope that employers realise that HIV-positive people can work as well as healthy ones, and that the disease cannot be spread so easily, like the flu.'
HIV, or the human immunodeficiency virus, is the virus that causes Aids, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Aids is the advanced stage of an HIV infection.
The AFA website states that about 30 per cent of patients develop Aids five years after they are infected, and 50 per cent develop Aids within eight to 10 years. Others may take longer.
The number of reported HIV/Aids cases in Singapore has been rising - from 0.8 cases per million in 1985 to 117.8 infections per million last year.
The main mode of transmission is sexual contact.
John suspects that he became infected after having unprotected sex in 2002. He fell sick a few months later.
'I was down with the flu, but it was very bad. For three weeks, the fever wouldn't go away. I was coughing and had diarrhoea, vomiting and body ache,' he recalled.
'One night I developed rashes all over my body. I panicked and had to be rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night.'
He spent five days in hospital, where he was tested for dengue fever.
When the results turned out negative, further tests were done.
He received the devastating news in January 2003.
'I didn't know what to think, but at that point, I was surprisingly calm.
'It was only a few days later that I was plunged into depression and had drastic mood swings,' he said.
'I tried to convince myself that I would be okay with medication.'
Over the next year, his immunity took a dive. He was down with flu every month, for up to a week each time. Once, he was coughing for about a month.
His weight dropped from 60kg to 50kg - low for his 1.75m height.
At the time, he was working as a part-time receptionist. He also had other part-time jobs.
NO DISCRIMINATION
One of his employers knew about his ailment, but John did not experience any discrimination.
However, he eventually left to try new jobs.
In 2004, he was put on a cocktail of anti-retroviral drugs, but the results were not immediate.
Doctors had to change the combination of drugs several times before they found one that suited him.
At the start, he developed allergies such as rashes, and often fell ill.
The drugs cost between $1,200 and $1,500 a month. His Medisave account was exhausted within a year.
He hid his illness from his parents and it was only after his diagnosis that his siblings found out he was gay.
John's condition stabilised in 2006, and he started work as a CCA coach.
Soon after the school stopped his services, a friend put him in touch with a lawyer who told him that if he wanted to take further action, he must be prepared to go public with his story.
He was also told it was hard to take legal action against the school because he had not been directly employed by it.
NOT READY TO GO PUBLIC
John said: 'I was told that if I were to fight, my identity would be made public. Everyone would know about my illness. I wasn't ready to do that.
'There is too much stigma attached to the illness. Right now, even my parents don't know I'm sick and I don't want them to ever find out.'
John is now working part-time in a different industry.
He said: 'Employers need to understand the mindsets of many HIV patients. We value our work and are prepared to work hard because, unlike healthy people, we know our job prospects are limited.
'The last thing we want is to break our rice bowl.'
This story was first published in The New Paper on Aug 5, 2008.
