PHILIPPINES - Just a few days before the observance of World Aids Day last December 1, a TV game show proved how much work still needs to be done to change popular perceptions and attitudes about HIV/Aids.
In the November 27 episode of 'Family Feud' (aired on GMA Network), host actor Richard Gomez announced that, based on a survey among an anonymous group of respondents, the most 'shameful' disease to have was Aids.
"I thought it was callous and irresponsible of the show's producers to allow unverified and sensitive information like this to be aired on national television and abroad," comments freelance writer Ross Harper. "Since 2000 I've been fighting to protect the rights of Aids patients (or people living with HIV/Aids) and change the stigma bestowed on them by ignoramuses.
Geeez, with all the information available and advocacy going on in preparation for World Aids Day, you'd think a celebrity and the show's producers would be better educated by now."
It's especially ironic that Gomez would declare Aids as the "most embarrassing" disease since he has had first-hand experience with the stigma that mere rumours about one's HIV status could raise. If you will remember, in the early 1990s, rumours started going around that celebrities, including basketball players and actors, Gomez among them, had been diagnosed positive for HIV. At the time, HIV/Aids was a relatively 'new' disease, largely linked to homosexual sexual behaviour although in a few years it would be revealed that most cases were being spread through heterosexual sex.
To prove the rumour-mongers wrong, Gomez went in person to the department of health, whose head was then Juan Flavier, and underwent an HIV test, making the results public and putting the vicious talk to rest.
Why would Aids be the 'most shameful disease', at least based on the small sample taken by 'Family Feud'? Is it because it's a sexually transmitted disease? If so, then syphilis, gonorrhea, Chlamydia, and even cervical cancer - which is mainly caused by the human papilloma virus, which is spread through sexual contact - should lay equal claim to the "title".
Is it because Aids is infectious? So is tuberculosis or hepatitis, or SARS. Moreover, an HIV infection cannot be spread through the air or by casual contact, unlike the other diseases.
But what's with this ranking of diseases by how 'embarrassing' they are? Embarrassing to whom? Diseases are caused by viruses, bacteria, and errant cells, exacerbated by lifestyle, poor diet, lack of exercise and poverty. When someone gets infected by a virus or bacteria, is he or she to blame for getting sick? Of course not, not even if the infection is spread through sexual contact, unless one believes having sex is abnormal, or immoral.
Instead, we should be asking the public, including game show producers, what they propose to do about our most common diseases, many of which are preventable and curable by cheap and readily available drugs and public health measures. Recently, for instance, there was an outbreak of typhoid in a town in Quezon province, and it was found that the deaths and illnesses were caused by contaminated water. Who should take the blame? Not the victims, surely, but local government officials need to ask themselves what they did (or did not do) to ensure the safety and potability of their water supply. Such a simple, basic thing - and yet so many died. They should hang their heads in shame!
