Would You Touch a Poster with a Drop of HIV-Positive Blood on it?
By AYA TANTIANGCO, GMA News
If you encounter a poster and it announces in big, red letters that it contains a drop of HIV-positive blood, would you hold your breath as you pass it? Star far from it? Turn around and walk the other way?
One man in Brazil kissed it. He said he felt love for the person the blood came from—a person he doesn’t even know.
To put your mind at ease, no, the man did not get infected. The poster is safe and poses no real threat to anyone who touches it, stands next to it, hugs it, or loves it. The same rules apply to a person living with HIV.
The HIV Positive Poster is born from the partnership of Ogilvy and Brazilian NGO Grupo de Incentivo à Vida (GIV). Nine volunteers from GIV shared their blood for the campaign, which aims to share information about HIV.
The poster reveals this very important fact about the HIV virus: it doesn’t survive very long outside the human body. The accompanying video for the poster also explains that because of the treatment that the volunteers are taking, their blood can’t infect anyone.
One of the volunteers, Victor Silba, has traveled to the Philippines with the HIV Positive Poster and during the unveiling of the English version on Monday (February 15), he shared what life with HIV is like in Brazil.
While it was difficult in the beginning, he says that things have gotten better, especially in terms of available medication (which has, as infectologist Arthur Kalichman said in the video, decreased the possiblity of transmission) and available means of prevention.
“It is the people’s right to choose how to prevent infection,” Silba said and added that in Brazil, pre-exposure medicine is available for free. To deny people access to medication is downright unconstitutional in Brazil, as it is written that being healthy is a right.
Silba stressed, “Health is a right. It is a responsibility for the government.”
The poster is in the Philippines with the help of local HIV campaign Pedal for HIV. Founder Faustine Luell T. Angeles Jr. also donated his blood to create an original poster to tour around the country.
“I want to visit different places in the country with it and spread awareness,” Angeles said. “I want to influence the youth in different communities to be leaders and continue the advocacy.”
Angeles has been living with HIV for four years and he is as healthy as ever—especially with the help of biking. He says that the activity not only keeps him physically fit, it also helps fight depression and stress.
Angeles and the HIV Positive Poster will be traveling to Banaue (February 16), Palawan (February 23), Cebu (March 1), Boracay (March 6), and Iloilo (March 10).
— BM, GMA News