Should I continue with school?
Oct 21, 2007
YOU will need the knowledge you are acquiring at school to go through life. So make sure you keep studying instead of thinking about death, which in any case will come to everyone whether HIV positive or not.
Dear doctor, I am HIV-positive in Senior Two. Is there need for me to study since I am going to die?
Name withheld
YOU will need the knowledge you are acquiring at school to go through life. So make sure you keep studying instead of thinking about death, which in any case will come to everyone whether HIV positive or not.
HIV/AIDS is an incurable disease. However, the advances in its management such as the development of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), makes it possible for one to live for a long time.
There are very many people who are doing very well on ARVs, but cannot share their experience because of stigma, yet their openness would have been of great help to people like you.
Some children who were born with HIV/AIDS are now at university. Others have completed college and are working.
You need support, especially counselling, to cope with the challenges associated with living with HIV/AIDS like the fear of death.
You should get attached to a peer support group of other adolescents who are living with HIV/AIDS so that you can share experiences and know that you are not alone. Remember there are over two million children living with HIV/AIDS in the world and about 150,000 in Uganda.
Some of these children do not even have the opportunity to attend school like you do. Do not give up. Continue taking your drugs as instructed by your doctor and do your best at school.
Name withheld
YOU will need the knowledge you are acquiring at school to go through life. So make sure you keep studying instead of thinking about death, which in any case will come to everyone whether HIV positive or not.
HIV/AIDS is an incurable disease. However, the advances in its management such as the development of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), makes it possible for one to live for a long time.
There are very many people who are doing very well on ARVs, but cannot share their experience because of stigma, yet their openness would have been of great help to people like you.
Some children who were born with HIV/AIDS are now at university. Others have completed college and are working.
You need support, especially counselling, to cope with the challenges associated with living with HIV/AIDS like the fear of death.
You should get attached to a peer support group of other adolescents who are living with HIV/AIDS so that you can share experiences and know that you are not alone. Remember there are over two million children living with HIV/AIDS in the world and about 150,000 in Uganda.
Some of these children do not even have the opportunity to attend school like you do. Do not give up. Continue taking your drugs as instructed by your doctor and do your best at school.