As the country prepares to celebrate Mother's Day on May 8, AIDS prevention groups called on the public to learn more about the disease and be more supportive of AIDS sufferers and their mothers.
caretakers
"Marginalization and discrimination against AIDS patients has isolated many people with AIDS. This situation puts much pressure on those patients' mothers, who usually take on the responsibility for taking care of their sons or daughters," said Li Long-teng (李龍騰), head of the Taiwan AIDS Foundation.
At a press conference yesterday to address the importance of social acceptance for AIDS patients and their families, a mother whose son died of AIDS a few years ago read out a letter she wrote to him to express her grief and the pressure she had been under over the years.
"After you contracted HIV, the pressure of taking care of you and your emotional father often overwhelmed me, but I told myself to be strong for you ... I hope that with the greater assistance now available, mothers of AIDS patients won't need to go through all the pain I've experienced," said the mother, surnamed Li, reading from the letter.
Hung Chien-ching (
`Chronic disease'
"With the advent of cocktail therapy treatment, AIDS has become a chronic disease. Just like other chronic ailments such as diabetes, people with AIDS can live up to 20 or even 30 years with continuous treatment and the support of their families and friends," Hung said.
The doctor also called on pregnant women with HIV/AIDS to seek out cocktail therapy to prevent their babies from contracting the disease.
"Cocktail therapy treatment, starting from two weeks into the pregnancy, can help reduce the chances of delivering an HIV-positive baby from 25 percent to 1 percent," Hung said.
Meanwhile, Sister Teresa Hsieh (謝菊英) from the Lourdes Home, the only Catholic organization in Taiwan that offers a free service to people living with HIV/AIDS, discussed a new harm-reduction program.
"While the program provides a good solution to the problem of drug addicts with HIV, I think the government should prepare participating clinics with counseling and psychological therapy services for those patients," she said.
A buprenorphine maintenance program, which began this year under the supervision of the National Bureau of Controlled Drugs, is designed to wean addicts off heroin by replacing it with buprenorphine, a less addictive opiate.
Apart from reintegrating former heroin addicts into society, the program is also geared toward curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Statistics
According to statistics from the Center for Disease Control, the number of people infected with HIV after sharing needles had risen to 248 as of last October.
In 2003, there were 5,221 people with HIV/AIDS in Taiwan. In 2010, the estimated number of infected people could soar to 13,258, the statistics said.
"Mothers of HIV/AIDS patients are usually the ones who take on their care. Instead of bearing all of the stress alone, I encourage these mothers to seek help from AIDS prevention groups, and get more information on prevention and care from hospitals," Hsieh said.
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