Download this publication - AIDS Data Hub

“When you walk in [to the] ID [Infectious Diseases] section only, youknow, ID clinic or HIV - he’s even scared to go for treatment, you know.You see [from that] how much is the discrimination, in fact. Ah….thestigma is there! How do you cope with all these, I mean. All of you havegone through the treatment and the people look at you one kind, you knowwhat I mean.”(Male, 36yrs, Upper secondary education, DU)“…and treatment is vital for people with HIV. It is crucial, you need totake treatment in order to survive, and this discrimination even scares youto go and take treatment”(Male, 36yrs, Upper secondary education, DU)Whether this treatment was due to the HIV status or applies to all bed-ridden patients inthat ward cannot be ascertained but one participant told of how it was in hospital whenshe was so ill and unable to get out of bed or even sit up:“Nurse sana kata apa? Orang kenal X [mentions own name] - hidungdengan gigi; lain tak kenal! Dekat Sungai Buloh memang X mandi pakaitu troli panjang, bukan kerusi roda, troli panjang. Tiap tiap pagi, nursekejut, attendant kejut, suruh bangun, pusing, tolak ke bilik mandi, airsiram – begitulah!”(“The nurse there – what she said? People know you from your nose andteeth – the rest they can’t recognise! At Sungai Buloh [hospital], I wasactually bathed on a [hospital] trolley, not from a wheelchair, a trolley.Every morning, the nurse wakes me, the attendant wakes me, tells me toget up, turns [the trolley], pushes it to the bathroom, showers me - justlike that!”)(Transgender, 46yrs, Upper secondary education, SW)At the family and community level, PLHIV participants faced stigmatizing reactionsfrom various sources, strangers, local residents, friends as well as family:“Ha..macam dekat kampong, dia orang dah tau dia positif. Dia orang taknak kawan dia, asingkan dia. Dia orang tak nak cakap dengan dia”(“Ha...like in the village, the people know that he/she is positive. Theydon’t want to befriend him/her, isolate him/her. They don’t want to talk tohim/her”)(Transgender, 27yrs, Primary education, Infected Partner)“They worried that when I look at them, they will become AIDS patientstoo…therefore all of them ran away from me”(Male, 36yrs, Primary education, Heterosexual)“Saperti mana kawan-kawan yang duduk dengan saya mula menjauhkandiri daripada saya. Tak apa. Dia orang tak ada pengetahuan tentangHIV. Yang dia orang tahu HIV boleh merebak. Itu saja. Kemudian, saya81