Murni called me up this morning. I told her to call me whenever she’s in Ipoh for her hospital appointments or to get her medication. Since she stays out of Ipoh, I’d usually take the opportunity to meet up with her whenever she’s in Ipoh. This time I made sure I told her to wait for me at the waiting area in front of the Klinik Pakar. I didn’t want to go round the hospital looking for parking. That would take 15 minutes at the very least.
Today Murni came to Ipoh alone. Her husband wasn’t working today and so there was someone at home to look after her 1 year old baby. I asked if she wanted some milk powder for the little girl. We had a big box of milk powder at our center and if she didn’t mind carrying the box with her on the bus, she could take the whole box. Murni was glad to accept the offer. To her carrying bulky things in a bus is a normal thing.
While at the center, Murni also gave me the photocopies of her children’s birth certs and whatever other supporting documents to enable me to help her apply for whatever available financial assistance. I also took down details of her schooling children’s list of fees and payments that needed to be paid to the respective schools. Murni has yet to pay a single sen.
All those shouldn’t be much of a problem. What really bothered me was what happened at Murni’s house recently.
2 officers from the Pejabat Kesihatan Daerah where she stays went to visit her at home. No prior calls, no warnings whatsoever, they just went to visit her to find out how she’s doing and to ask her lots of questions. They didn’t even bother to find out if there was anybody else at home who may not know about Murni’s HIV status. None of Murni’s children know that their mother is HIV positive. Worse, when the officers went to visit, Murni’s sister-in-law was there and the officers simply asked Murni questions about her HIV without taking privacy and confidentiality into consideration. What on earth were they trying to do? It’s not like Murni has been missing any of her hospital appointments anyway! And Murni’s appointments are in Ipoh GH, not at the district hospital.
Murni got annoyed. She asked them why they were asking so many questions. It’s not like she’s a prostitute or a drug user anyway. She got the virus from her late husband! The officers said they were just doing their duty… but still, couldn’t they have practiced some discretion as to how to go about? And doesn’t their duty also include the responsibility to keep the matter private and confidential? Why did they simply terjah the patient’s home without warning and started asking her questions relating to her illness? I don't see the need!
So today at the hospital, Murni went to meet SN at the HIV clinic and told her what happened at her home. SN immediately called the Pejabat Kesihatan Daerah to ask them why they had no sensitivity at all. Sigh!
Murni also told me about her friend from her old kampong who’s also HIV+. You see, Murni actually hails from a state up north. Like Murni, her friend, N too found out about her HIV status during pregnancy. They both got the virus from their husbands.
N’s husband died when she was at the early stage of her last pregnancy. When N’s blood test results came out, somehow words spread around town that N was HIV +ve. Guess where the news came from? Yep, the staff at the district hospital where N went to get her blood test done. It’s in a small town where almost everybody seems to know each other.
To support her children after her husband’s death, N opened up a food stall. But because her town folks knew she has HIV, they refused to eat at her stall.
Murni herself found out about N not from N herself. Murni went back to her kampong to visit her married daughter, took a taxi from the bus station to her daughter’s house, and it was the taxi driver who was bad-mouthing N. The guy told Murni about N’s HIV status, and that he wouldn’t want to eat at N’s food stall as N’s saliva may tempias into the food while she cooks and whoever ate the food may get infected as well. In the first place, HIV doesn’t spread through saliva. And secondly, that taxi driver doesn’t mind eating food containing the saliva of the chef as long as the chef is not HIV positive???!! YUKKS!! Now I’m having second thoughts about eating out. Not because I’m afraid I may get infected with HIV, but because I’d start imagining the existence of other people’s saliva in the food I order. YUKKSS!! (Thanks a lot Mr Taxi Driver!!)
Anyway, listening to the taxi driver talking about an HIV+ve friend made Murni feel uneasy. Being +ve herself, Murni didn’t want to argue with the guy, for fear that he may suspect she was +ve too. So she just kept quiet and listened, reluctantly.
And oh, I didn’t finish my story about N, did I? Well, N had to close down her food stall, sold off her house and moved to another town to start afresh.
Looks like the stigma and discrimination is still very strong in this case. But my main concern is; why can’t the health personnel be more professional? Here we are, trying to convince people to go get tested, and to go for proper check-ups at the hospitals if they’re infected, promising them confidentiality, yet the health authorities themselves (like the ones who went to visit Murni at home) can’t keep things private and confidential! (Not all laa… usually those yang kepoh ni are the ones who are not directly involved with HIV cases. So bila dapat tau one HIV case, depa pulak yang kepoh lebih. Those who directly handle HIV cases are usually more trustworthy in this aspect.)
Confidentiality assured? Yeah, right! The authorities better do something about this. Don’t only train those who are directly involved in HIV cases, those in other departments too will need to keep matters like this P&C.
9 comments:
This kaypoh-ness is very rampant in all sectors. The worse thing is that people know they are being kaypoh and still think that it is completely fine :/
Discretion?... forget about it.
Dah jadi seronok pula menjaja cerita orang sana sini. Pelik manusia ni kan?
Naz,
For some people, depa memang bangga jadi tukang cerita hal-ehwal orang lain. They somehow get the satisfaction of being the one who got to know about it earlier. Jenis macam ni bila terkena batang hidung sendiri baru padan muka!
I am very sad for Murni and especially N.But Pi, those people were not given more info on HIV. Jadi the prejudice on HIV cases memanglah teruk.
Hopefully, society will be more educated on this matter soon.
And to those health officers, suruh diaorang ketuk ketampi 1000 kali! Ni HIV lah!
Pi, i pun tak faham what is wrong with our gov hospital/clinic ppl. Not all but most of them macam tak tau that they have to keep the privacy of the patients.
To them, the thought of 'knowing' and being the first to relay the messages to everybody makes them superior or the champion and they are loving it.
Confidentiality? The only confidentiality in this country is when some higher ups have done a nasty deed and the ensuing cover ups that "require" it.
The poor, the sick, the downtrodden will never get the privacy they rightfully deserve. We still have a long way to go.
Thanks for making people
aware.
Mamasita,
Prejudice is one thing, tapi tak payahlah jaja cerita satu pekan. As for the health officers, mana cukup suruh ketuk ketampi je. Kena suruh depa buat khidmat masyarakat for a year, walk around town wearing the poster, "I have AIDS. Will you hug me?"
Farina,
Tu lah pasal... depa boleh bangga tau cerita dulu dari orang lain. Boleh cakap pulak lagi, "Jangan cerita kat orang lain, ya?"
Mat Salo,
Yang cover ups tu sekadar cover up officially boleh la, tapi mulut orang tak boleh nak cover up juga. Cerita tak betul pun still go around no matter what you tell them. To me, it's better for me to berkawan dengan someone yang orang cerita bukan-bukan pasal dia, tapi dia sendiri tak cerita buruk pasal orang. Much safer than berkawan dengan orang yang asyik nak mengata orang je kerjanya... termasuklah cerita-cerita P&C.
ignorant govt officers usually will handle such matters with a certain high-handedness. they will try to act professional, but it will come out all haughty and insensitive and very lacking in discretion. they need to be trained to handle these things.
on another note, i don't eat birthday cakes, unless it is my birthday and I'm the one who blew out the candles. nothing to do with HIV, just hate the thought of someone's DNA all over the cake.. yucks!
Sue,
They try to SOUND professional by using that "saya cuma menjalankan tugas" - other than that, I'm not even sure if they know what being professional means.
And yes, birthday cakes! Some tu bila blow the candles (especially kalau banyak candles), nampak tersembur air liurnya. Eeeuuuwwww...
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