AIDS AS A FATAL DISEASE
...ill cast you away afraid they might get contaminated by the incurable disease. It would be unjust to treat an innocent kid like that. Parents of Li Ning at the same time felt helpless and isolated. AIDS comes from a virus which was isolated in 1983 as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) here will be an estimated 10 million cases of HIV in China by the year 2010, thus making them “one of the biggest AIDS countries in the world”. On the other hand, you will feel the sentiment of a grandmother who took care of his ten-year old grandson, Mitchell (Joslin 27-31). It started when Mitchell suffered from sores in his mouth, even after the child was given medications still nothing happened. The doctors started doing the tests until one doctor asked Betty (grandmother) to sign up for the HIV test since her daughter, the mother of Mitchell has been tested in the hospital twice for HIV although the result has always been negative. When the last test was taken, Betty knew then when the doctor told her to come to the office what the result would be. She was told that Mitchell got infected by HIV just two months after her daughter died. Betty has mixed emotions; she felt “scared, angry, and lost”. No one in their family knows except one of his son. Her first reaction is to keep it by herself because of the issues brought by that disease. Only then did she realize that she’s got no other choice but to tell the truth to her entire family. Mitchell’s family is very supportive to him. It is also during this time, that Betty felt the presence of God in their life. It shows that every time each and every one of us will pass a very difficult task in our life, the only means to survive is the knowledge that you have your family along the way to support you and total reliance on God. In one of the research it came out that some victims are burdened with the thoughts of having HIV. One victim says, “I have a completely different outlook on life than before I was diagnosed. I really feel cheated with the possibility that I’m not going to get to see and do what I normally do” (Lather & Smithies 3). They automatically feel the stress even before they really feel the actual result of the disease. The stress would definitely kill them and not the HIV. It’s the society’s expectations that could drown you to your helplessness. Sometimes no matter how the victim would accept it, the society always had a big impact to pull you down. There are a lot of testimonies that could break your heart. As I’ve researched it, I feel sorry to the victim and to the people around them. Acquiring HIV could turn your life into uncertainty; it gives you a lot of fatigue; it makes you sick. I’ve realized that life after all is very valuable and every opportunity and chances given should be enjoyed to its fullest. In the story of Lori, she remember well how she suffered from high fever that kept coming back, added by “wrenching chills and shortness of breath” until she fell into a semi-coma. Furthermore she added that she pass a lot of “nasty procedures” that she’s been worried about—“a lung biopsy, spinal tap, and worst of all the bone marrow test” (Lather & Smithies 22-23). However, my curiosity runs on the possibility on how t...