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"Human face on AIDS"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(27/12/05)
A BOOK about a Botswanan woman living with HIV was launched in Africa
recently to raise awareness about the AIDS scourge facing the continent, but
for its Swedish author, it has helped confront more personal demons.
AIDS activists handed out 15,000 copies of A Few Days More: The story of a
young woman living with HIV in Botswana at AIDS clinics and testing centres
in southern Africa to help break down taboos around the disease that has
infected 26 million people in the world’s poorest continent.
Swedish journalist Anna Koblanck spent three months living with HIV-positive
single mother “Patience” in a shantytown in Botswana’s third-biggest city of
Selebi-Phikwe, sharing her life, her cockroach-infested kitchen and even her
bed.
“I felt that AIDS was only reported in terms of numbers, which doesn’t
really mean anything to most people,” Koblanck told Reuters in the Botswanan
capital. “I thought if I wrote about one person, it would put a face on the
disease.”
The story of Patience’s struggle has already been published in Sweden.
Beyond the lofty aims of raising awareness, Koblanck was motivated by her
own experiences with HIV as a teenager attending an international school in
Swaziland, which has overtaken Botswana as the world’s worst affected nation
with an infection rate of 42.6%.
At 33, Koblanck is two years older than Patience – not her real name – and
lost her virginity in Botswana about the same time as her subject.
A nurse in Sweden had warned Koblanck about AIDS and urged her to use
condoms – Patience was not so lucky.
“I realised a long time ago that this could have been me ... and that was
part of wanting to write the book,” she said.
Despite practising safe sex, Koblanck later took an AIDS test in Swaziland
and, because of a mix-up with the results, spent three hours believing she
was HIV-positive.
“I went numb,” she said. “Since then AIDS has always been something that has
scared me, partly because I witnessed the impact of AIDS living in Africa
and partly because I realised I could have been involved personally.
”It is about conquering your own fears instead of being scared by this
disease. I think we should meet our fears and try to get as close as
possible to them.”
Unlike, Koblanck, when Patience received the devastating news she was
HIV-positive the results were bona fide and her prospects grim. In Botswana,
HIV affects 38% of people.
Yet after a long struggle to come to terms with her status – chronicled in
the book – and thanks to Botswana’s comprehensive rollout of life-prolonging
anti-retroviral drugs, she, too, is determined to conquer HIV.
Patience still refuses to go public with her status for fear of stigma, but
hopes her story will help encourage other young Africans to get tested and
urge them not to shun those with HIV.
“AIDS can happen to anyone; the silence is killing people,” Koblanck quoted
her as saying. “When you finish reading this book you should know that a
friend with AIDS is still a friend.”
It is hard to see what Patience gains from the project after spending three
months under the scrutiny of a stranger at risk of having her status
disclosed. However, in a community where she can speak freely to only a
trusted few, Patience says that for her, too, the process was cathartic.
“It was like a weight lifted,” she said. “I felt that after I had talked
about it, it was easier to go on.” – Reuters
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