Campaigns against HIV-related stigma in Kenya have been launched by different kinds of HIV networks but the battle seems far from being won. The rural areas are hit seriously by that stigma and many times it goes unnoticed. The damage this stigma has done has invaded children, the youth and mostly the elderly.
In Kangundo district, within Eastern province of Kenya, people the youth has been affected mostly by the stigma. The local District commissioner, Charity Chepkonga decried rampant drug and substance abuse, early pregnancies and subsequent school dropout rate. She said that when the youth test HIV positive they are treated like outcasts and are then forced into the street by stigma.
A visit to local secondary schools revealed that many students had tested positive but have refused to disclose to anybody for fear of being stigmatized. “ I can’t disclose, the way my friend was treated even by the teachers after she disclosed……..she had to leave school!” said a student from one of the schools.
In the market places, the youth still have a tale to tell: “ My mother was a local brew seller. When she fell sick I was the only one to assist her. I was so ignorant of HIV and its transmission and I guess that is where I got infected” narrates Jane who is now doing sex work at only fourteen years!
She said that when her mother died she went back to her grandmother who treated her with deep indignation that she had to drop out of class five and join one of her mother’s friends in the market. Soon she started having sex for money and eventually got full throttle in the trade.
She said that when her mother died she went back to her grandmother who treated her with deep indignation that she had to drop out of class five and join one of her mother’s friends in the market. Soon she started having sex for money and eventually got full throttle in the trade.
Another young man said that he was discouraged when he went to the hospital and found his neighbor at the reception desk. “The story spread like bush-fire in the entire village!” he said adding that he sought solace from drinking and taking drugs.
Stigma from health facilities is outstanding in the rural areas. HIV related groups have appealed to relevant bodies to prompt training and seminars to those areas in a bid to safe lives. Many high school students may apparently have been infected during birth since in their years the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission project (PMTCT) was not available. Most of them are stigmatized for a reason they barely know about.
TheKangundo District Public Health Officer,Mr. Onchonga stressed the need for concerted seminars to the health facilities workers to revamp the pride of hospitals as solace givers.
Recently, a couple went to a hospital within Kenya’s Eastern Province and was told to seek medication from a private hospital. The couple questioned why they should go elsewhere whereas their files were in that Comprehensive Care Clinic. The lady who was attending them sneered at them and snarled: “why do you bother people and you are soon dying?” From the reaction of the other patients who looked on helplessly, it was evident that those kinds of sentiments were common in that hospital.
Such kind of stigma in health facilities is not unusual in the rural areas. Educations on modes of transmission, the rights of a person living with HIV and other relevant issues have been overlooked in the rural areas. A visit to the same hospitals wards revealed that all HIV infected patients were isolated in one ward. They looked miserable and uncared for.
A discussion with the hospital authorities was as productive as “we are looking into it”. There is therefore urgent need to address such issues to deal with despair from those who test positive.
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