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PETALING JAYA: Thana Seelan Somanathan was only 17 years old when her doctor told her she was HIV positive.
“I felt like the world was falling apart around me,” he said of his first reaction to learning the terrible truth 15 years ago.
He was in Singapore for a job interview and had to undergo a medical examination, which included an HIV test. That spelled the end of a dream of having a paid job so that he could support his parents.
“I was nervous. I told my mother and instead of expressing shock or disappointment, she calmly assured me that everything would be fine and urged me to return home,” he said.
When he got home, he received a big hug from his mother. She never asked him how he got infected. Instead, she began looking for ways to help her son.
To ease Thana Seelan’s pain, her mother made sure that movies of people who died of AIDS were never seen at home.
“She did not accept the possibility that I died of AIDS,” he said.
After seeking treatment at Sungai Buloh Hospital, he sought a job in the hotel industry.
Thana Seelan, 32, considers himself lucky to have the support and care of his family when others like him have been stigmatized, despised or marginalized. He even found a woman who not only married him, but also fights her battle with him.
Today, as humanity celebrates World AIDS Day, Thana Seelan revels in her role as a spokesperson for the HIV community, confident in her ability to survive adversity and unafraid of being stigmatized.
The Ministry of Health estimated that there were 87,581 people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Malaysia in 2019.
However, only 77,903 know their status. The ministry believes that the remaining 10,000 people may not even know they are HIV positive.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Rosnida Mohd Noh recently told Bernama that drugs to treat HIV have been around since 1987 and, over the years, there have been many advances in the field of HIV treatment. which has led to the availability of higher quality drugs.
“The drugs we have now are much more effective and have minimal side effects. By using the latest medicines, PLHIV can lead a healthy and normal life like everyone else and also have a normal life expectancy, ”he said.
The drug can reduce the amount of the virus in the body to the point where it can no longer be detected in the blood, he explained.
However, it cannot clear the virus from the body completely, so patients must take medications for life.
According to Rosnida, the best way to slow the spread of HIV / AIDS is to raise public awareness about the infection and how best to prevent it.
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