Have you ever felt like you could be in someone else's shoes? That's
what Mei felt when she was faced with the decision of whether to be a
HIV test counselor, the same time she found out that she tested positive
for the hepatitis B virus (HBV).1 Mei wondered about similar
questions that individuals with HIV might ask themselves: "How will I
tell my family? My friends? My partner?" She took the job, using her
experience as someone who is infected with HBV, to help relate to others
when they find out they are HIV-positive.
May 19 was both
National Hepatitis Testing Day and National Asian & Pacific Islander
HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Both hepatitis B and HIV have stigmatizing
effects within Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities,
and both are often misunderstood. Estimates of persons with chronic
hepatitis B in the United States range from 1.32 to 2.2 million2, and 1 in 12 AAPIs has hepatitis B3. AAPIs also have the lowest HIV testing rates of any other racial/ethnic group4, partly due to the lack of culturally and linguistically specific materials and services.5
In an Asian family like Mei's, she finds it difficult, years after
being diagnosed, to speak with her family about hepatitis B openly. She
still keeps her status quiet among certain family members whom she feels
may think ill of her. Mei says this is similar, if not more enhanced,
in AAPIs who are HIV-positive, where no one wants to talk about HIV
because it is primarily considered a sexually transmitted disease.
Read more.... Labels: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), stigma