Ongoing Battle – HIV/AIDS

HIV treatment involves taking medicine that reduces the amount of HIV in body. HIV medicine is called antiretroviral therapy (ART). There is no effective cure for HIV. But with proper medical care, it can be controlled.  It is not a life threating disease anymore in the developed countries.  However, that is a different story in the developing countries, especially in Africa and some Asian countries because ART is too expensive and patients cannot afford to buy it. Worse yet, the lack of proper medical system means patients can’t receive any proper medical care. The spread of HIV/AIDS is therefore still ongoing in Africa and the continent are far from eradication.

(Photographs by Kibae Park – i tell a story.com)

An AIDS hospice I visited in Lopburi, Thailand is where female AIDS patients, shunned by family, go through treatment or spend the final moments of their lives. Caskets fill up the hallways and when a patient dies, the staff perform a short ritual and creamtes the body right away. The ashes are put in a bag and kept underneath a statue of Buddha. In the photograph below these bags look like a trench made by soldiers. One bag belongs to one patient. Most of them die alone, not surrounded by loved ones. Their eyes are truly heartbreaking.

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