By Adam Hollingworth
Campaigners supporting HIV positive women say recent disclosures about a
man injecting his wife with HIV are a wake-up call.
They say heterosexual transmission of HIV is growing, and education should not “just” focus on gay men.
Melinda Fraser is one of a growing number of straight women who have contracted the HIV virus.
“At school I was never educated about HIV, so basically I was sent out into the world not knowing what HIV was,” she says. “Did the big OE, and was diagnosed as HIV positive.”
But while HIV carries too great a stigma for many like her, Melinda has gone public.
“Only over the last year I’ve become public about my status to educate and share my story, but in saying that, a lot of people who I’ve met have had some very sad experiences in dealing with discrimination and stigma,” says Ms Fraser.
Jane Bruning has written a thesis on the stigma of HIV. She says it may be why one man admitted injecting his wife with his own HIV-infected blood.
Another was jailed for having unprotected sex with his girlfriend after lying about his HIV status, and train driver Glen Mills died on remand before standing trial for infecting seven people with HIV.
“I wouldn’t say it’s common behaviour, I think most people who are living with HIV are very responsible, and they’re very careful,” says Ms Bruning.
“But then there are some people who the stigma affects to such an extend that they go into such denial.”
She says those men were responsible for their own actions, but statistics show anyone can get HIV, and now half of those living with the virus in New Zealand are heterosexual.
“This perception that it is a gay man’s disease is again an old fashioned stereotype that we need to go beyond.”
Ms Bruning says there would be less shocking headlines about the irresponsible transmission of HIV is it was treated more like a virus and less like a social curse.
3 News