HIV, AIDS, safe sex, & fornication: Personal, religious, medical and social viewpoints

HI THERE!

By God’s divine leading, He has led you to this post! Thanks for clicking and i hope you’ll continue to read on. The fact that 1 in 2 of you has arrived at this post in a “google” search for the terms “sex” and “aids” should indicate your interest in these topics. Below i present several viewpoints.

To advocate safe sex in a bid for HIV/AIDS awareness, sometimes we need visual help.

Sources: Digg, German ads, Stanford Unofficial Blog

Personal thoughts and opinion

Personally, I would advocate abstaining from pre-marital and loose sex instead. Condoms are great, one of the contraception methods available. However, the availability of such protection against any unwanted pregnancy has contributed to people being loose about sex in general. Sex is supposed to be a holy and sacred thing shared between a married couple, committed to one another in a lifelong relationship. Call me old-school, but this is what i think.

Saving sex for marriage, and fornication: Biblical viewpoints

Below, i present some Biblical viewpoints on saving sex for marriage, and fornication. Read on if interested.

Should you and i save sex for marriage? Find out here why you should.

How about fornication? Seems like an unpleasant term? Well, fornication simply means voluntary sexual intercourse between a man and woman who are not married to each other. Adultery is one form of fornication. In every form, fornication was sternly condemned by the Mosaic law among God’s people, the Israelites (Lev. 21:9; 19:29; Deut. 22:20-11, 23-29; 23:18; Ex. 22:16). (See ADULTERY.)

Fornication is also mentioned many times in the New Testament (Matt. 5:32; 19:9; John 8:41; Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25; Rom. 1:29; 1 Cor 5:1, 6:13, 18, 7:2; 10:8; 2 Cor 12:21; Gal 5:19; Eph 5:3; Col 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:3; Jude 1:7; Rev. 2:14, 20-21; 9:21; 14:8; 17:2,4).

This site offers a lot of Q&As with regards to this matter. For example, one asks, “Fornication in the Bible seems to refer to adultery, incest, homosexuality, and bestiality. I don’t see anyone being called a sinner for engaging in premarital sex.” Find out the answers here.

What if you already had pre-marital sex? All is not lost. You are not condemned to hell immediately. Thankfully, you have until you die (which you never know when) to decide to repent. Follow this link to find out how you can still be right with God.

HIV/AIDS: Medical viewpoints

AIDS, a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)^[1] is now a pandemic, with an estimated 38.6 million people now living with the disease worldwide.^[2]

Stylized rendering of a cross section
of the human immunodeficiency virus

For more on diagnosis, symptoms, complications, transmission, prevention, treatment, epidemiology, economic impact, stigma, origin of HIV, and common misconceptions, check out the Wiki links.

AIDS awareness sign. Ho Chi Minh City, 2005.

Of course, loose sex is just one of the many ways HIV is transmitted. Gee, there is even a WHO programme to circumcise men in Africa to prevent HIV. Apparently it helps. For more info, Medscape provides an excellent site on all things medical with regards to HIV and AIDS.

HIV/AIDS: Social viewpoints

Stigma exists. Like it or not. The world is not an ideal place. Now, why is there stigma attached to HIV/AIDS? Would you avoid sharing a drink with an AIDS sufferer, even though you full well know that transmission through that tiny bit of saliva is close to zero?

(i used to share drinks with a Hepatitis B sufferer back in the military. He was the store sergeant, and i was one of the platoon commanders in the company. I know the ways Hep B can be transmitted, plus i was immunized. That is the closest personal experience i have with regards to this.)

Did you also know that when epidemiologists first started field work in the U.S. to try to find out what is causing all these immune-related health problems, they had to visit bath houses where there is substantial amount of gay-related activities taking place? In the period June 1, 1981 to April 12, 1982, CDC received reports of 19 cases of biopsy-confirmed Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) and/or Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) among previously healthy homosexual male residents of Los Angeles and Orange counties, California. Following an unconfirmed report of possible associations among cases in southern California, interviews were conducted with all 8 of the patients still living and with the close friends of 7 of the other 11 patients who had died. (Source: CDC) This could be why HIV/AIDS used to be known as GRID (gay-related immune disease), only to be dropped when they found out that this was not exclusive to the homosexual community.

Imagine being deprived of employment opportunities when your employer finds out you have AIDS? Modern advances in medical pharmacology (anti-retroviral drugs) has now made AIDS no longer a death sentence. AIDS sufferers can live up to the normal life expectancies in their countries, as long as they stick to their medication. I do pray they make full use of their new lease of life, becoming advocates and strong people who fight for a new life. I was particularly touched when we heard accounts of AIDS sufferers, face to face, as part of our medical curriculum as we dealt with issues regarding stigma, HIV/AIDS, etc.

Even then, do we have the right to judge a fellow human being, just because he/she has made some mistakes in their past and thereby acquired AIDS? Maybe he/she didn’t even make a mistake in the first place! Jesus tells in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, Chapter 7, the following:

1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Back to judging AIDS sufferers, perhaps because they used to have loose sex, multiple partners, or took drugs intravenously. Now we look at other potential AIDS sufferers. What about the health-care worker that got a needle-stick injury from an AIDS patient? What about the child dying in Africa from AIDS due to vertical transmission? What about the millions of African women who are raped by African men who have AIDS, thinking that they can rid of their own disease if they rape a virgin? (3 needles movie)

Next, i introduce to you a fantastic account of Dr. Daniel J Baxter in “The Least of These My Brethren: A Doctor’s Story of Hope and Miracles in an Inner-City AIDS Ward“, about his years working as a doctor in the 17-bed unit at the Spellman Center for HIV Related Diseases at New York City’s St. Clare Hospital.

More than just telling his own story though, Baxter introduces us to the untouchables–the AIDS victims of the late 20th century. We meet transvestite prostitutes, teenage crack addicts and penniless ex-prisoners: the invisible members of society who die in the roach-infested wards of an inner city hospital. This could be a morose, grim tale of human despair, but Baxter refuses to allow his ward or his book to succumb to such a sad fate. Instead, this story becomes a phoenix of spiritual hope and human compassion, which eloquently rises from the ashes of AIDS in the 1990s.

Read it. I highly recommended this fantastic account.

HIV-related stigma: the way forward

HIV-related stigma and discrimination remains an enormous barrier to effectively fighting the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Fear of discrimination often prevents people from seeking treatment for AIDS or from admitting their HIV status publicly. People with (or suspected of having) HIV may be turned away from healthcare services, employment, refused entry to foreign country. In some cases, they may be evicted from home by their families and rejected by their friends and colleagues. The stigma attached to HIV/AIDS can extend into the next generation, placing an emotional burden on those left behind.

Denial goes hand in hand with discrimination, with many people continuing to deny that HIV exists in their communities. Today, HIV/AIDS threatens the welfare and well being of people throughout the world. At the end of the year 2005, 40.3 million people were living with HIV or AIDS and during the year 3.1 million died from AIDS-related illness. Combating the stigma and discrimination against people who are affected by HIV/AIDS is as important as developing the medical cures in the process of preventing and controlling the global epidemic.

So how can progress be made in overcoming this stigma and discrimination? How can we change people attitudes to AIDS? A certain amount can be achieved through the legal process. In some countries people who are living with HIV or AIDS lack knowledge of their rights in society. They need to be educated, so they are able to challenge the discrimination, stigma and denial that they meet in society. Institutional and other monitoring mechanisms can enforce the rights of people living with HIV or AIDS and provide powerful means of mitigating the worst effects of discrimination and stigma.

However, no policy or law can alone combat HIV/AIDS related discrimination. The fear and prejudice that lies at the core of the HIV/AIDS discrimination needs to be tackled at the community and national levels. A more enabling environment needs to be created to increase the visibility of people with HIV/AIDS as a ‘normal’ part of any society. In the future, the task is to confront the fear based messages and biased social attitudes, in order to reduce the discrimination and stigma of people who are living with HIV or AIDS.

(Picture credit)
Conclusion

I end this article here, and hope that my personal viewpoints have not offended you, your past and/or current actions, or anything like that. I personally feel very much for the AIDS sufferer. I am also thankful for the provision of wisdom to the researchers and pharmacologist on advanced anti-retroviral drug therapy for AIDS patients.
As i stress once again, these views are personal and i am not imposing anything on you my reader. I am merely sharing my personal thoughts with you. Share yours with me too.

God bless.

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