Disclosing You're HIV+: Risk Rejection, or Prosecution?

[iwoof4u]

Hello, I don't live in the west or europe, but I'm curious. What about men who lie and claim that they had tested and are negative when in fact they didn't, and are positive and unaware of it? I happen to know someone who had fallen for that, the person he slept with had claimed he tested and was negative but as it turned out he was lying and it later he discovered he was positive, so while in my country there are no laws against on that, just curious what happens in the kingdom or states.

[Jibjub80]

4.31 "disclosing is a BAICH" Thats what it sounded like he said. I wonder what a 'baich' is.

[richkid401]

if u dont tell you are passing it on , then that person wont know and pass it on

[Babymatic2009]

i dont want to sound mean but people with aids and hiv should be quarantined, but then that would be discriminations, if i had it i would want to be quarantined

[iwoof4u]

You don't have it and you don't know how it feels to have it.

[AIDSvideos]

There is no need to quarantine people with HIV. It is not an airborne infectious disease like XDR tuberculosis. You can work with an HIV+ person, be friends with them, have a meal with them, shake hands with them, hug them, and you will not contract HIV. HIV+ people just need to follow their doctor's instructions, inform sexual partners in advance, and use condoms. There is no public health or other justification for quarantining people who are HIV+.

[philip2260]

@AIDSvideos i know this is a while, but to quarantine them would stop the hole problem, with people having sex with them

[AIDSvideos]

@philip2260: The fact that quarantining people with HIV would prevent quarantined people from transmitting HIV to non-quarantined people doesn't mean it's legal, moral, or justified on public health grounds. (No on all three counts.) HIV+ people have human rights just like everyone else.

[philip2260]

@AIDSvideos well, here were just talking. so the fact that aids people keep passing it on, is that legal? listen to this video. being moral, well they done it to them selves, and nature is killing them, they are fighting it through drugs, but they will die. hiv+ do have rights, but they done it to them selves. and what about the rights of hiv-. they have the rights to be protected. and if we did quarantine them think how many lives we would save. it will never happen, but it is the only real an

[AIDSvideos]

@philip2260: If an HIV+ discloses their status in advance to a prospective, mentally competent sexual partner and the partner consents, it is LEGAL for them to have sex (even unprotected sex), and HIV transmission may legally occur as a result. That's the law. (I do not condone HIV+ people having unprotected sex BTW!) There is no law against HIV+ people having sex; nor should there be. It would be a human rights violation. It would also be an ineffective law.

[AIDSvideos]

@philip2260: It is wrong to say that HIV+ "done it to themselves." Really? All HIV+ people? What about infants infected in the womb, during birth, or from their mother's milk? What about wives infected by husbands who had sex with a prostitute and didn't tell the wife or use protection? What about people who had sex with a partner who they honestly but wrongly believed to be HIV-? What about people who were lied to by their partner? Rape victims?

[AIDSvideos]

HIV- people have the right to be informed of prospective partners' HIV status in advance and the right and responsibility to make good decisions on that basis (not have sex, engage in activities that don't risk HIV transmission, use condoms, etc.). If everyone uses condoms every time for every act, everyone stops sharing needles when using drugs, and all HIV+ pregnant women & at-risk newborns get treatment, we could slow the epidemic almost to zero just by those means alone.

[philip2260]

@AIDSvideos er.. the problem is people want their cake and eat it too. when i listen to this video and others by this guy. you really get a feel of some problems in the gay community. some people will not use condoms (thats why most have aids) people dont tell others that they are or might be hiv+. and its not just gays its our community. but i think the gay community has more stds than straight.

[philip2260]

@AIDSvideos also if everyone had 1 partner and never sleep with anyone else, then all these stds would stop, but that aint going to happen and neither are condoms and people telling others they might be hiv+

[AIDSvideos]

@philip2260: It's true that getting people to change their behavior is hard, but it's not impossible. It's working. The number of new HIV infections per year worldwide peaked around 2000 at 2.7M and has dropped since to 2.3M. That's progress. Evidence is that young people in Uganda waited longer to start having sex and reduced the number of their partners in response to the threat of HIV, contributing to a drop in the HIV prevalence rate there.

[philip2260]

@AIDSvideos 2.7m to 2.3m is good. but your relying on a lot of people, not to spread that diseases. i cant see that happing. can you honestly see people not spreading it if they knew? in our sexual fuelled culture people will not stop having sex. thats also why we have so many abortions. people live for the moment. quarantine them would work, and is the only real answer to stopping this. relying on people never works. read of how china dealt with its opium problem in 1941. and the good its done

[Dooont]

why would you want to be quarantined? Are you saying that you wouldnt disclose it to anyone and intentionally pass it on to others? that mean you have low morals, in that case you shouldnt be quarantined instead you should have some morals. and by the way, saying that people with hiv aids should be quarantined is a very low thing to say!

[Babymatic2009]

why would someone with aids even think of having a relationship, at least be with someone who has the bug already and pass it back and forth with them

[AIDSvideos]

Maybe because they fell in love?

Even if both partners in a sexual relationship are HIV+, they still need to practice safer sex (e.g. use condoms, etc.) to reduce the risk of exchanging different strains of HIV and creating a new drug-resistant mutation that causes ARV treatment failure in one or both of them.

[joshuaeben]

In fact, research shows that it is riskier to sleep around with people of an unknown status than with someone who is HIV positive and is in treatment. The simple reason is that when someone is being properly treated it is very hard for them to give HIV to anyone. So hard in fact that the average person is more likely to encounter some who is positive and doesn't know it than getting it from them. Also known seropositives generally practise consistent safe sex.

[Fallujah25]

The law should stand!! Don't worry about a one night rejection, their will be people out there that will accept you for who u are!! Be honest, don't hide or lie when the heat of the moment comes around!! Better to face a single rejection than to be labeled a murderer and infectious!!

[joshuaeben]

Labeled a murdurer and infectious, hardly!! That is just plain ignorance. Someone who is HIV positive and being treated successfully (ie with an undetectable viral load) is not particularly infectious..and when a condom is used it becomes a statistical impossibility....in otherwords you are more likely to die from a lightening strike or crossing the street or even of just plain natural causes.

[AIDSvideos]

To be clear, when an HIV+ person is in treatment for HIV (presumably with ARVs) and uses a condom it is not a "statistical impossibility" for them to transmit HIV. The risk is greatly reduced, but the risk is not zero.

[Fallujah25]

I fell that it should stand. If you don't disclose ur status and ur hiv + than u deserve to go to jail. It just as bad as murder. As people reach a certain age in their life, they're old enough to understand how hiv is transmitted and what risks to take. If that person can't accept u for who u are than oh well. Theirs plenty of others out there that will.

[joshuaeben]

Of course someone who is HIV positive has an obligation to protect those he or she goes to bed with..but that does not extend to disclosure, it does extend to safe sex. Most first world countries laws reflect this...the US is the exception...given how backwards it is in general when it comes to human rights legislation...this is not surprising.

[sexanddiamonds]

Why do HIV positive people even think of having sex? Very selfish! They should masturbate.

Why would anyone risk having sex with an HIV positive person anyways?

[AIDSvideos]

(1) HIV+ people have the same human rights as everyone else, including the right to be sexually active. (They do have an additional obligation to disclose and use barrier methods to protect their partner.) (2) Why would anyone have sex with an HIV+ person? Plenty of reasons. Perhaps they are married to them, or life partners, or in love? Don't stigmatize or dehumanize people because of their HIV+ status.

[spiderman7889]

thats how it spreads.

[PhilipRochester]

To tell or not to tell? To be or not to be prosecuted? To tell after the event is to risk being successfully prosecuted, as has been the case every time such cases have gone to Court. I now disclose each and every time as the worst that can happen is that I receive a "No" and would rather receive this than face a criminal prosecution if my sexual partner decides I infected him and if genetic DNA sequencing proves this in Court. As the man with HIV it is my sole responsibility to disclose to him.