I recently read a story about a lady who tested HIV positive and failed to tell her lover. I could just imagine the mixed feelings that readers had, first when the manly man played with her emotions and wasted her time. He even ended up marrying another lady. This story revealed the amount of HIV ignorance that everyone.
At the end of the story, this lady, who chose to be anonymous, for obvious reasons, was the villain. She didn’t disclose to a family man, who she instead chose to have a child with. Though I don’t agree with her reasoning – she wanted to have a child because she was HIV positive, single and in her 30’s – for now, I will express my thoughts on the comments left by the readers.
Some readers said that she was punishing an innocent wife and children. We may never know the back story, about who she got HIV from. It might have been from partner number two. Might even have been from her numerous one night stands during her depressive time, when she was trying to get over the fact that her lover got married and never told her. How about the possibility of getting HIV from the mysterious family man? She was to blame here. Why was she punishing an innocent married woman?
HIV is complex. You may decide to be loud about it and scare those who want to keep it under wraps. Those who choose to stay silent about it may just want to live a normal life, away from the glare of the public. The lady in question wanted to live a normal life, that’s why she opted to have a baby. One is not obliged to reveal their HIV status to everyone- apart from their intimate partners.
I know this is an ethical dilemma faced equally by HIV positive individuals and those who are negative. Let me throw some breadcrumbs for thought here: Ever heard of U=U (Undetectable=Untransmittable)? I might address that in a subsequent post.