Monday, August 24, 2015

Infections and Inequalities

It is true that people who are in the ‘same boat’ understands each other more, I am speaking in terms of patients having the same disease. For the past few weeks I have been working at the infectious disease ward at the National Leprosy Centre. It used to be filled with leprosy patients, it now admits patients with the more common infectious disease of today: those affected with HIV/AIDS. Located near Sungai Buloh Prison, the main prison of Malaysia, it also houses a lot of sick inmates and convicts from the prison. My ward, ward 54 has patients which are mostly HIV positive, and some of them have been there for a long time. Sometimes they are just waiting a place for them to stay when they are discharged from the wards.

I have been observing them for awhile now, and I can say that I have never worked in a ward where patients really care for each other. I had a patient with cerebral toxoplasmosis which damaged his brain function to the extent that he could not control his hands while feeding. Every time food is served, the patient next to him would sit beside, and slowly feed him before taking his own meal. Another day, a patient had vomited on the floor, suffering the side effects from the new HIV drug that we started, and the next thing that happened was the patient next to him ran to the toilet. I thought that he couldn’t stand the awful smell, but instead he came back with a mop and cleaned up the vomit right away.

National Leprosy Centre, Sungai Buloh
Last weekend I was letting another HIV patient home, and I saw him exchanging phone number with the patient in front of him. I kiddingly asked him: “eh, tuka nombor ni sebab nanti nak masuk balik ke?” (exchanging numbers because you want to come back here, do you?). His answer touched me. He actually found out that the other patient had been in the wards for months only because of placement issue: he does not have a place to stay if we let him go. So he took the other patient’s number, because he knows a relative who owns a home for the disabled. Once he is out, he said he will persuade his relative to let the guy stay at that home. He is just worried because of his friend’s HIV status, whether his relative would consider letting him stay.

In the beginning I was afraid to work in a ward full of convicts, prisoners, and drug addicts. But it is only after talking to the patients, knowing their social issues, getting to know them as individuals instead of diseases, that I see another side of them. Not all of them are bad. One convict was running away from the police stealing a hi-fi audio player. When the police snatched him, he accidentally dropped the hi-fi on the police’s foot, and now he is charged with ‘police assault’ that gives him heavier punishment and more years in jail. He regretted his act until today. Even if they were bad in the past, it doesn’t mean that they still are. I see some who was constantly reading the Quran and makes the effort to pray 5 times a day. As I mentioned before, some of them really took care of their friends. We cannot stigmatize these people, who we are to judge them based on the disease that they have? Prophet Muhammad SAW once said:

O people! All of you are the children of Adam. You are like equal wheat grains in a bowl ... No one has any superiority over anyone else, except in religion and heedfulness. In order to consider someone a wicked person, it suffices that he humiliates other people, is mean with money, bad-tempered and exceeds the limits.(Narrated by Abu Hurayrah (r.a.), Ahmad, Abu Dawud, 4/331)

These are the people who are the most vulnerable, the most stigmatized, shunned from the outside community. As a doctor, I swore not to treat these patients any differently than how I treat the others: VIPs and ministers alike. My times in Indonesia and Cambodia has carved a different way of how I approach these diseases. I would not jump at the moment a new drug for HIV, or TB, or malaria has been launched. I would only jump in joy if these drugs could reach the ones most vulnerable to these diseases: the poor, the homeless, the prisoners. I know it takes a lot of effort to ditch the stigma that we have towards these people, especially those affected with HIV, but once you talk to them you will realize that they are no more different than you: with hopes for the future, with families, friends and a job to keep. If we keep stigmatizing others and deny them of adequate treatment, I guess as they slowly feed another friend who are much worse than them, in their eyes, all they can see...is their future self

4 comments:

gulbinar said...


cepat kaya

,,.,KISAH NYATA ,
Aslamu alaikum wr wb..Allahu Akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar
Bismillahirrahamaninrahim,,senang sekali saya bisa menulis
dan berbagi kepada teman2 melalui room ini,
sebelumnya dulu saya adalah seorang pengusaha dibidang property rumah tangga
dan mencapai kesuksesan yang luar biasa, mobil rumah dan fasilitas lain sudah saya miliki,
namun namanya cobaan saya sangat percaya kepada semua orang,
hingga suaatu saat saya ditipu dengan teman saya sendiri dan membawa semua yang saya punya,
akhirnya saya menaggung utang ke pelanggan saya totalnya 470 juta dan di bank totalnya 800 juta ,
saya stress dan hamper bunuh diri anak saya 2 orng masih sekolah di smp dan sma,
istri saya pergi entah kemana dan meninggalkan saya dan anakanaknya ditengah tagihan utang yg menumpuk,
demi makan sehari hari saya terpaksa jual nasi bungkus keliling dan kue,
ditengah himpitan ekonomi seperti ini saya bertemu dengan seorang teman
dan bercerita kepadanya, Alhamdulilah beliau memberikan saran kepada saya.
dulu katanya dia juga seperti saya stelah bergabung dengan KI JAROK hidupnya kembali sukses,
awalnya saya ragu dan tidak percaya tapi selama satu minggu saya berpikir
dan melihat langsung hasilnya,
saya akhirnya bergabung dan menghubungi KI JAROK di No -0`8`2`1-9`2`1`5-0`5`6`7-.
Semua petunjuk AKI saya ikuti dan hanya 3 hari Astagfirullahallazim,
Alhamdulilah Demi AllAH dan anak saya,
akhirnya 5M yang saya minta benar benar ada di tangan saya,
semua utang saya lunas dan sisanya buat modal usaha,
kini saya kembali sukses terimaksih KI JAROK saya tidak akan melupakan jasa AKI.
JIKA TEMAN TEMAN BERMINAT, YAKIN DAN PERCAYA INSYA ALLAH,
SAYA SUDAH BUKTIKAN DEMI ALLAH SILAHKAN HUB KI JAROK DI -08`21-92`15-05`67-.
(TANPA TUMBAL/AMAN).

Unknown said...

Saya IBU YUSLIANI HASRA posisi sekarang di malaysia bekerja sebagai pembantu gaji tidak seberapa setiap gajian selalu mengirimkan orang tua sebenarnya pengen pulang tapi gak punya uang sempat saya putus asah dan secara kebetulan saya buka internet ada seseorng berkomentar tentang OM AGUS OM AGUS katanya perna di bantu melalui jalan togel saya coba2 menghubungi karna di malaysia ada pemasangan togel jadi saya memberanikan diri karna sudah bingun saya minta angka sama OM AGUS angka yang di berikan 6D TOTO tembus 100% terima kasih banyak OM AGUS kemarin saya bingun syukur sekarang sudah senang dan rencana mau pulang ke indo untuk buka usaha bagi penggemar togel ingin merasakan kemenangan terutama yang punya masalah hutang lama belum lunas jangan putus asah HUBUNGI OM AGUS DI NO: 085~397~766~615 tak ada salahnya anda coba karna angka ritual OM tidak perna meleset saya jamin OM AGUS adalah orang bisa dipercaya.yg penting anda yakin dan percaya dan jgn samakan dgn peramal yg lainnya seperti ki ronggeng,mba sugem ki nugroho mba jombrang dll.saya sdh berkali2 menghubungi peramal yg lainnya seperti aki2 dan mba2.tapi cuma mengecewakan saya dan menipu saya.tapi kali ini saya sudah betul2 percaya bahwa peramal asli itu memang betul memang ada yaitu OM AGUS.insya allah OM AGUS tdk mengecewakan anda.terima kasih yg punya ROOM

IBU LILIS MALAYSIA said...

saya ibu lilis posisi sekarang di malaysia
bekerja sebagai pembantu gaji tidak seberapa
setiap gajian selalu mengirimkan orang tua
sebenarnya pengen pulang tapi gak punya uang
sempat saya putus asah dan secara kebetulan
saya buka internet ada seseorng berkomentar
tentang MBAH LIMPAH katanya perna di bantu
melalui jalan togel saya coba2 menghubungi
karna di malaysia ada pemasangan
jadi saya memberanikan diri karna sudah bingun
saya minta angka sama MBAH LIMPAH
angka yang di berikan 6D TOTO tembus 100%
terima kasih banyak MBAH
kemarin saya bingun syukur sekarang sudah senang
dan rencana mau pulang ke indo untuk buka usaha
bagi penggemar togel ingin merasakan kemenangan
terutama yang punya masalah hutang lama belum lunas
jangan putus asah HUBUNGI MBAH LIMPAH
DI NOMOR HP: 085~312~407~999
tak ada salahnya anda coba
karna angka ritual MBAH tidak perna meleset
saya jamin MBAH LIMPAH tidak akan mengecewakan..

IBU TUTI TKI SINGAPUR said...

saya PAK SLEMET posisi sekarang di malaysia
bekerja sebagai BURU BANGUNAN gaji tidak seberapa
setiap gajian selalu mengirimkan orang tua
sebenarnya pengen pulang tapi gak punya uang
sempat saya putus asah dan secara kebetulan
saya buka FB ada seseorng berkomentar
tentang AKI NAWE katanya perna di bantu
melalui jalan togel saya coba2 menghubungi
karna di malaysia ada pemasangan
jadi saya memberanikan diri karna sudah bingun
saya minta angka sama AKI NAWE
angka yang di berikan 6D TOTO tembus 100%
terima kasih banyak AKI
kemarin saya bingun syukur sekarang sudah senang
rencana bulan depan mau pulang untuk buka usaha
bagi penggemar togel ingin merasakan kemenangan
terutama yang punya masalah hutang lama belum lunas
jangan putus asah HUBUNGI AKI NAWE 085-218-379-259
tak ada salahnya anda coba
karna prediksi AKI tidak perna meleset
saya jamin AKI NAWE tidak akan mengecewakan









saya PAK SLEMET posisi sekarang di malaysia
bekerja sebagai BURU BANGUNAN gaji tidak seberapa
setiap gajian selalu mengirimkan orang tua
sebenarnya pengen pulang tapi gak punya uang
sempat saya putus asah dan secara kebetulan
saya buka FB ada seseorng berkomentar
tentang AKI NAWE katanya perna di bantu
melalui jalan togel saya coba2 menghubungi
karna di malaysia ada pemasangan
jadi saya memberanikan diri karna sudah bingun
saya minta angka sama AKI NAWE
angka yang di berikan 6D TOTO tembus 100%
terima kasih banyak AKI
kemarin saya bingun syukur sekarang sudah senang
rencana bulan depan mau pulang untuk buka usaha
bagi penggemar togel ingin merasakan kemenangan
terutama yang punya masalah hutang lama belum lunas
jangan putus asah HUBUNGI AKI NAWE 085-218-379-259
tak ada salahnya anda coba
karna prediksi AKI tidak perna meleset
saya jamin AKI NAWE tidak akan mengecewakan

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