HAVING HIV or AIDS need not be a death sentence! There are people who have had HIV for more than 10 years and still show no symptoms of AIDS-related diseases.
Our message for you today is that people living with HIV or AIDS can have just as good a life as the uninfected. In fact, it can be better if they: have sufficient, regular sleep stay in touch with friends take regular exercise stay off drugs have good dental care enjoy themselves and have a good belly laugh eat regularly and follow a sensible diet Our next message is that HIV is spread in specific ways that we told you about in our last feature.
It is NOT spread through daily contact. Studying, playing in the schoolyard, using the same library books or coloured pencils of an HIV-infected student does not put your life in danger.
And there is more! There is no record of any close family members of an HIV carrier or AIDS patient ever being infected through daily casual contact. So rest your fears! No matter if young people are infected or not infected with the HIV virus, they have a right to be educated.
So our last message to all students is to show compassion and support to help HIV-infected students to live, not die, and to be educated, not isolated.
