Are schools ready to accept HIV?

Are schools ready to accept HIV?

JAKARTA (JP): "We will address AIDS prevention activities in
schools, but we will leave it to NGOs and other organizations to
address the problems arising from infection by HIV."

This was a recent comment by an official from the Ministry of
National Education.

While at first glance, this would appear to be a reasonable
policy, there is in fact a most important role that schools can
play in responding to infection among students; and teachers. As
HIV infections start to rise sharply in Indonesia, including
among the young, it becomes more and more likely that schools and
colleges will experience the presence of students with HIV. Are
they ready to accept this? What will be the reaction of staff,
other students and parents to such news? Will an uninformed
response result in calls for segregation of the infected student,
or isolation by former schoolmates?

Such responses are usually triggered by fear, resulting from
lack of information about how HIV is -- and is not --
transmitted. Unfortunately, this fear is sometimes intentionally
generated during HIV prevention activities. In fact, transmission
of HIV is most unlikely to occur in a school environment.

During our World AIDS Day activities, let us be sure that we
breakdown this fear, and that we do not generate the impression
that "good people don't get AIDS". Such messages will make it
much more difficult for those who know they are infected to
disclose this, and for those who feel they may have been involved
in risky activities to come forward for testing.

It is to the benefit of all to generate an environment in our
schools and colleges -- and in all areas of our daily lives --
which is supportive of people with HIV/AIDS. Not only will this
protect the rights of these individuals; it may also persuade
them to act as peer educators in a subject they are uniquely
qualified to discuss.

--Chris W. Green