Khaw’s Medieval Approach To Solving the AIDS Problem.

 

Our health minister is considering implementing an opt out scheme whereby every patient admitted into our hospital is tested for HIV unless he specifically opts out of it. Sort of like our Human Organ Translant Act (HOTA) where everyone is assumed to be a willing organ donor unless he specifically opts out.

I don’t know about you, but seems like everytime the government wants to take stuff from us, we need to opt out just so they don’t take it whereas if the government is giving out money like rebates, singapore shares or whatever, we need to opt in.

Maybe its just the mentality out the government- we owe them for the awesome job they are doing.

Incase you don’t know, singapore recorded the highest number of new HIV/AIDS infections since the disease first appeared in 1985. 357 in 2006, up from 317 in 2005, up from 242 in 2003. So whatever the health ministry is doing to tackle the problem its obviously not working and now the health minister wants to get medieval.

Consider what a HIV sufferer is entitled to in singapore or maybe more appropriately NOT entitled to in singapore. You don’t get any form of subsidy from the government. Whatever treatment you seek from our healthcare system, you will have to pay the full costs. And those drugs are extremely expensive- somewhere in the region of $1200 every month for triple therapy.

You also don’t get to use Medishield. So forget about using your CPF which incidentally IS YOUR MONEY to pay for your treatment.

And if you’re married, it is also mandatory that your spouse be notified. And if your spouse is infected then he or she can also be deported if they happened to be foreign born.

And if your company or boss finds out, you can be summarily dismissed because there is no protection under the law.

So under all these conditions and discriminations for HIV/AIDS sufferers, is it any wonder most adopt the ignorance is bliss mentality. Knowing you are HIV positive is not going to save or prolong your life, more often than not, in singapore, it has become a death sentence financially, socially and emotionally. A recent MOH study has already revealed 0.28 percent out of 3000 anonymous blood samples collected from those who were positive they are free of the disease is infact HIV positive. And here’s where the real danger occurs, people who ignorantly infects other people without knowing they are HIV positive.

And that’s why our health minister is considering getting medieval, root out the HIV positive and make sure they face all the discriminations and recriminations that all HIV sufferers face in singapore. Who knows, he might also be considering mandating all sufferers to have a piece of cloth cover their mouths and have them shout “unclean, unclean!” Or maybe Khaw is planning to build a HIV colony to round up and gather the damned- sort of like how he plans to throw all the retirees out of singapore once they are passed their useful date. Back in bibical times, lepers has to go live in leper colonies too.

Of course, there are those that argue, that AIDS is a result of those who chose to pursue a profligate lifestyle and as such society at large shouldn’t be burdened with the cost of treating them. Let these people pay for living promiscously. But then, where do you draw the line? Should we also not be burdened with the cost of treating those who have lung cancer due to years of smoking, or those have have heart disease, diabetes, stroke and all the associated diseases that comes with being overweight and living a sedentary lifestyle? Afterall these diseases are also largely the result of a particular lifestyle.

Worse yet, there are those misguided christians who thinks AIDS is divine punishment by God. I am a christian, maybe it is, maybe its not, but back during Jesus’s time, he never turned away the lepers, the sufferers of incurable diseases and told them to continue suffering because its divine punishment by his Father. No, he healed them all.

So why is singapore still so medieval about AIDS?

click here to read an angry doc’s take of the situation.