Dear Doctor,
I am living with HIV and on ART. There is a woman who dislikes me so much and has started sending me messages such as “moving corpse, dead body, HIV victim, loser, etc”. Sometimes she calls me and hurls insults at me. This has stressed me so much, although I don’t know where to report the case. Do we people living with HIV, have anywhere we can report such people? Can I sue her? Is it an offence? How can I stop her from insulting me?
I have a daughter whom I still have to look after but this lady is destroying my life. Please help and advise. Thanks.
Anonymous.

Dear Anonymous,
LIVING with HIV does not mean one stops being a human being and can, therefore, be abused at will by others. If you have evidence such as SMS on your phone, sent from this woman’s phone, you should report this to the Police, who should be able to help you.

The Uganda Human Rights Commission should also be able to help you if you feel you are being treated unfairly purely because of your HIV status.

It is certainly wrong for anybody to harass another because he or she is HIV-positive, since it is not an offence in this country to be HIV-positive. The main challenge we have is stigma associated with HIV, especially self-stigma which makes many people living with the disease to keep silent even when they are discriminated on the basis of being HIV-positive.

This has caused many people to deny they have the disease, with detrimental results such as dying from AIDS. That is why now UNAIDS, the United Nations programme on AIDS, encourages us all to work towards the “ three zeros”, — zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero stigma and discrimination against PLHIV.