Kristin Ofer
“We are not afraid of HIV but prejudices,” was the main slogan used during the events in Istanbul marking the World AIDS Day. The events provided an opportunity to change the main medical topic that is the swine flu that everybody has been talking about for several months.
The flu, or more scientifically, the H1N1 virus, is dangerous bur curable. But HIV is not curable but fortunately unlike the swine-flu we can control the spreading of HIV. “HIV does not mean helplessness,” was another slogan of the World Aids Day in Turkey. 1st of December was designated as the World AIDS day by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1988 to draw attention to the disease. For the last 21 years activists and experts all over the world are tackling with the medical but also the social problems presented by the disease.
Since 1985 about 2,500 people in Turkey had been officially registered as infected with HIV. In contrast to about 75 Million people living in Turkey the number of HIV infected persons does not seem impressive but the estimated number of unreported cases is expected to be rather high. According to the WHO’s country profile on Turkey HIV-tests are mostly limited to the urban centres. Actually half of them are registered within the boundaries of the province of Istanbul.
Istanbul was the centre of the activities of the World Aids Day in Turkey. The events to mark the World AIDFS Day in Turkey were organized by the “Pozitif Yaşam Derneği”, the Turkish branch of “Positive Life Association”, a NGO which has been founded in order to build a network among people living with HIV/AIDS. They want to ensure that infected people have better access to treatment, to improve their living standards, to strengthen them and their relatives physically, psychologically and socially, to provide legal assistance in case of violation of legal rights and to raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS.
“Since AIDS doesn’t hit the headlines anymore a dangerous half knowledge consisting of rumors run among the people,” says Hasan from the “Pozitif Yaşam Derneği”. He explains: “There are different extremes. Some people underestimate HIV thinking that it is curable or that only homosexuals can get it. Other people have crude theories about getting HIV from just talking to an infected person or they think that a positive test is an immediate death sentence which is thanks to medical treatment definitely not true.”
“Pozitif Yaşam Derneği” took the opportunity and got involved in the activities on the 1st of December as a major organizer. Surprisingly for some spectators, the whole event was characterized by a joyful circus atmosphere instead of promoting a fear of the disease and death. With percussion music, dancing and colorfully dressed artists the organizers succeeded in creating a cheerful mood that attracted passers-by. An elegantly dressed, grey haired woman answered the question why she was joining the activities:”Originally I wanted to go shopping today but then I heard the music and became interested what this is all about. I spoke with that friendly women at that stand and she explained to me that they are fighting against prejudices surrounding HIV. I think this is an important thing that’s why I will join the protest march along Istiklal Caddesi.”
Of course, there were some really serious aspects as well: Speeches delivered by doctors, discussions with experts and a journalists conference. But these activities were mostly attended by people who already know about or have some experience with HIV.
The major goal of World Aids Day 2009 in Turkey was to raise awareness for the virus among the population and to fight prejudices.
“Önyargı”, prejudice was the motto of the day. “We are not afraid of HIV but of prejudices,” read a placard on one of the information stands written by medical doctors. Indeed prejudices are a major problem that the HIV-infected people have to face. Many patients keep the fact that they are infected a secret because they fear the consequences of making it public. Not only that the people with a positive HIV-test have to live under medical control all the time, they also loose their jobs, lovers, friends and sometimes they are even abandoned by their families.
Especially the people who don’t know anything but hearsay about HIV tend to treat infected people as lepers. “You don’t get HIV from social relationships and “People with HIV can get jobs.” were two of the slogans written on red banners for the protest march along Istiklal Caddesi.
Gülcan, a 21-year-old intern at “Pozitif Yaşam Derneği” gets really upset about the prejudices against HIV: “The first day I walked into the bureau of Pozitif Yaşam Derneği really opened my eyes because you just could not see who had it and who not. I realized that each person can have it.” She states that Turkey is a quite conservative country where people don’t really want to talk about HIV or get tested. But especially the tests are quite important. Nowadays there are ways to lead an almost ordinary life with HIV. People who are tested positive can get a very good medical treatment and even more important people who have it can take care to protect theirs lovers from getting it too. “Everybody can contribute to the fight against HIV: Get tested and use condoms,” says one of the speakers. As simple as it seems this is definitely a better solution than discriminating infected people or not even talking about the existence of HIV. Hopefully the activities on World Aids Day in Turkey contributed to the awareness of HIV and to fight prejudices against it.
