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Fury and fear in Singapore after American man Mikhy Farrera Brochez spills city’s HIV secrets
- People living with HIV in Singapore ‘angry and frustrated’ after American man Mikhy Farrera Brochezkhy was accused of stealing the records of thousands of infected, and leaking them online
- Sumita Banerjee, executive director of NGO Action for Aids, said people with the virus had been calling up her group in tears
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Rico has lived with HIV for almost a decade, confiding in only a small number of people in socially conservative Singapore, fearful of the reaction.
Last month, he got a phone call saying information about his condition had been published online.
Rico was one of 14,200 people whose HIV status, name and address were dumped on the internet by an American man who is believed to have obtained the confidential data from his partner – a senior Singaporean doctor.
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“The LGBT community is angry and frustrated with the entire ordeal,” said Rico, who did not want to be identified by his full name.
The 31-year-old said he was frightened that “the leaked information may change people’s perception of me”, adding that he had not told all his friends he was HIV-positive.
Why some members of Singapore’s LGBT community prefer life in the shadows
“Society may be tolerant to the LGBT community but I do not think they are ready to accept a gay and HIV-positive individual. Not in my lifetime,” he said.
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