A Sad Tale of HIV in Singapore

[Guest fountainhall]

We often hear tales about the number of young people infected with HIV (in Thailand almost one in four of msm are so infected). But not so often nowadays do we hear about the effects on those so infected, especially younger guys in Asian societies where there are still taboos against being gay.

 

Singapore is slowly evolving, but there remain a lot of young HIV+ patients who are either unaware of their status or afraid to make their status known. Indeed, only two have ever publicly outed themselves as Persons with AIDS. One, a bisexual, came out in December 1998 and died in August 1999. The other, a heterosexual, disclosed his status in 2009 and has disappeared from public view since then.

 

The saddest thing about the first is that he had obviously started medication far too late. Nowadays, it is easier to be tested and receive treatment, but the social stigma remains. The website fridae.com has just printed an interview with one 24-year old “Zack”. He was obviously suffering from full-blown AIDS but has recovered thanks to medication and treatment. Although he remains anonymous, largely because he is a civil servant in a country where discrimination could cost him his job, he writes about his experiences and gives advice on various social media sites. He makes it clear at the end that in Singapore, as in Thailand, most young people know little about HIV and AIDS. Surely a damning indictment on one of the most advanced countries in the world.

 

I got myself tested during National Service. I was a soldier in the Singapore Armed Forces, an officer, and I was in a relationship with someone who was HIV-positive also. I had an inkling about my status, so I just took up the courage to get tested four months before I ORDed, so that’s how I got the news.

 

Then I went into hospital for one week for a certain infection. And that was when my mum found out: when she went through my stuff and she saw the hospitalisation bills. For the next one-year period I just had a really antagonistic relationship with my mother, so I kind of moved out.

 

. . . I went on a downward spiral. When they’re diagnosed with HIV, people either get really depressed and become reclusives in life, or they get really angry.

 

I became addicted to drugs, and I had even more sex than ever before. I went to saunas; I just became the village bicycle. It went pretty bad. I actually lost a lot of weight due to my addiction and my failing health. I kept getting sick all the time. I kept having fevers, flus, and sometimes when I overdid what I did last time I went into septic shock. There were three occasions where I went into septic shock directly after having sex – my temperature just went up and I started shivering like crazy. My buddies thought I was going to die.

 

I was actually afraid to start medication and break the news to my dad (my parents are separated). So I caught a waterborne illness called cryptostoridiosis, the kind that kills people with weakened immune systems. I think I caught it from one of the bathhouses in Singapore: it was the dirtiest, the filthiest place before renovation. And I was still under the influence of drugs, so I didn’t care; I was going around having sex everywhere there in very unhygienic conditions. Even my [HIV+] friends were like, “You caught crypto in Singapore?”

 

I got a very severe inflammation in my colon and I was in hospital for two months. And that’s when my entire family got to know – the entire clan, actually: aunts, uncles, nephews and my dad.

 

. . . I was infected with HPV, so I have to go to the DSC clinic every week for treatment. I’ve been doing it for the past two years, because my warts are huge. The doctor burns them off. It’s really painful. On a pain scale of 1 to 10, it would be a 7 for me. Thanks to the medication, they’ve recently disappeared, so I’m actually quite happy.

 

I also had a herpes infection. I had 50 or more tiny ulcers in my mouth. That was the most horrible part. Even drinking water was torture. I’ve cried only about once or twice over my HIV, but because of these ulcers, I cried every time I had to drink.

 

. . . I’ve set up the (social media) account to tell other HIV+ boys in Singapore that they are not alone in this trouble, so I’m just here to give them a guiding hand. If you know more about the disease you won’t be so afraid, and most young Singaporeans don’t know much about HIV. So I’m the smarty pants who’s actually giving them advice on how to live a life with it.

 

Lastly, I’m using the platform not to seek pity but to get understanding from people, so they won’t perpetuate the stereotypes and myths about the disease. All of us are human beings. You shouldn’t treat us like lepers.

 

http://www.fridae.as...es-online?n=sec

[Rogie]

If anyone living in Singapore, or indeed anywhere, has recently tested positive for HIV and is bewildered and confused and wondering what to do, hopefully by reading Zack's story he will decide to seek immediate anti-HIV drug treatment before all sorts of awful complications, such as happened to Zack, set in.

 

I see he was tested +ve but did not go on meds at that time. I wonder if the support structure in Singapore is poor. Surely in a civilised country anyone trested +ve should be given appropriate support and encouraged to start anti-HIV meds straightaway.

 

But, as we have seen in Thailand, even if the medical support is there, the family and friends support is often lacking, and it's when that is coupled to the guy's feelings of inadequacy that hopelessness can so easily set in and so there must have been, and no doubt still are, many 'Zacks' in Thailand.

[ChristianPFC]

This part is important:

 

æ: How are you paying for your treatment?

 

Zack: When I was in school, my dad was the one who provided me with the means and support to buy my medication. But I made a mistake, and I missed my medications for stretches of a time and the first-line medication stopped working for me.

 

So things got from bad to worse. I had to change it to second-line medication. And it costs S$900 (US$719) a month now, up from my S$100 first-line medication. So my advice to newly diagnosed patients is, don’t mess with your medication.

 

I now get them from the pharmacy, because as a student I was under Medifund’s health plan. But now I’ve got a job and my Medifund is going to start expiring very soon. Some people choose to use their Medisave.

 

Some people in the West consider HIV "manageable" or "not a death sentence any more", which is an euphemism. The lastest medicine against HIV is pretty expensive! Money that can not be use to find cure against cancer or malaria, illnesses that are not as easy to prevent as HIV.

 

I think I read on fridae that many Singaporeans with HIV go to Thailand to get cheaper medicine there.