Neither living nor dying, I’m an HIV AIDS patient
By, Jamila Achakzai, Daily Times (Pakistan), August 31, 2007
Islamabad: Jamal Khan is one of many who repent their extra marital sexual relations, which have made them to lead life with HIV-AIDS.
Now aged 31 and admitted in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), this father of four says he has lost good health, honour, money, relations, peace of mind, and in a word, everything to the deadly disease and has no charm in life.
Lying on a bed in a general ward, Jamal, whose name was changed on his request, has his sunken eyes and cheeks. Excessive loss of hair has rendered most of his head bald and his skin has turned black. He looks like a skeleton.
Belonging to a poor family of the conservative Malakand agency, Jamal was employed in a private construction firm in Saudi Arabia as a labourer and used to return home on vacations every year. As usual, he came back a few months ago to see his small family. Here, he had high fever for many weeks despite medication. Upset by his condition, he consulted doctors who recommended him for certain medical tests. To his horror and distress, the tests declared Jamal HIV positive two months ago and thus, landed him in a PIMS ward. He has been under treatment there ever since.
Jamal had contracted the deadly virus from a sex worker in Saudi Arabia. He insists he might have committed suicide if he knew he was an HIV-AIDS patient to avoid social stigma attached to a sex-related disease. Except for his brothers, his entire family is oblivious of his medical condition, as he has kept it in dark for the fear of abandonment. He knows he has not a long life ahead of him and wants to share all this with them at the earliest possible. Jamal says he is not a man of bad character and had committed just a mistake. “I wish my family and society forgives me because I regret having sex outside marriage. I feel ashamed to think about the time when my wife and children would learn about my disease and the immoral and un-Islamic act that caused it. They will abandon me which I cannot afford,” he told Daily Times.
With tears rolling down his cheeks, Jamal said he was neither living nor dying and was just like a living dead body. He regretted being looked down upon as an AIDS patient and disliked being avoided as if he was an untouchable.
“My message for people is that they should prevent themselves from establishing extra-martial relations to prevent HIV-AIDS by waging jihad against desire,” he said.
According to figures of National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), Pakistan has so far 3,198 HIV/AIDS registered patients. Independent estimates, however, put the number at 70,000 to 80,000, which means the country’s 0.1 percent population is suffering from the disease.
Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C08%5C31%5Cstory_31-8-2007_pg11_9
Islamabad: Jamal Khan is one of many who repent their extra marital sexual relations, which have made them to lead life with HIV-AIDS.
Now aged 31 and admitted in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), this father of four says he has lost good health, honour, money, relations, peace of mind, and in a word, everything to the deadly disease and has no charm in life.
Lying on a bed in a general ward, Jamal, whose name was changed on his request, has his sunken eyes and cheeks. Excessive loss of hair has rendered most of his head bald and his skin has turned black. He looks like a skeleton.
Belonging to a poor family of the conservative Malakand agency, Jamal was employed in a private construction firm in Saudi Arabia as a labourer and used to return home on vacations every year. As usual, he came back a few months ago to see his small family. Here, he had high fever for many weeks despite medication. Upset by his condition, he consulted doctors who recommended him for certain medical tests. To his horror and distress, the tests declared Jamal HIV positive two months ago and thus, landed him in a PIMS ward. He has been under treatment there ever since.
Jamal had contracted the deadly virus from a sex worker in Saudi Arabia. He insists he might have committed suicide if he knew he was an HIV-AIDS patient to avoid social stigma attached to a sex-related disease. Except for his brothers, his entire family is oblivious of his medical condition, as he has kept it in dark for the fear of abandonment. He knows he has not a long life ahead of him and wants to share all this with them at the earliest possible. Jamal says he is not a man of bad character and had committed just a mistake. “I wish my family and society forgives me because I regret having sex outside marriage. I feel ashamed to think about the time when my wife and children would learn about my disease and the immoral and un-Islamic act that caused it. They will abandon me which I cannot afford,” he told Daily Times.
With tears rolling down his cheeks, Jamal said he was neither living nor dying and was just like a living dead body. He regretted being looked down upon as an AIDS patient and disliked being avoided as if he was an untouchable.
“My message for people is that they should prevent themselves from establishing extra-martial relations to prevent HIV-AIDS by waging jihad against desire,” he said.
According to figures of National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), Pakistan has so far 3,198 HIV/AIDS registered patients. Independent estimates, however, put the number at 70,000 to 80,000, which means the country’s 0.1 percent population is suffering from the disease.
Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C08%5C31%5Cstory_31-8-2007_pg11_9
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 11:11 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home