Tryst with AIDS

by Nilma DOLE

Perera was a man who had everything - his successful enterprise, his lovely wife and two beautiful children. After humble beginnings in the Middle East, Perera had saved enough money to start his own housing business. He started by opening his shop near a bustling place in the heart of Colombo.

Eventually he found his Ms. Right and got married to settle down in a beautiful house in Nugegoda. Having found his niche in life and happy with his family, Perera couldn't be happier.

He was blessed with a healthy daughter and he named her Preethi as a tribute to his happiness. She was a bubbly girl with a cherub smile and Perera loved her dearly. Though, he did wish for a son to take over his enterprise which was now expanding islandwide.

So Perera and his wife decided to have another baby. It was just like what he dreamed. They were this time blessed with a lovely son. Perera smiled and thanked the heavens above and named the baby Sandun.

However, one day at the age of four, Sandun started becoming ill for no apparent reason and he was finally warded at the De Soyza maternity hospital. Tests showed that he was now dying of AIDS.

Perera and his wife were shocked and grief-stricken. How could a healthy boy suddenly be afflicted by AIDS? Their world tumbled and crashed!

The doctors interviewed the couple and asked Perera plenty of questions. The story goes that Perera worked for about 10 years in the Middle East coming into contact with several Indians and Pakistanis.

It could have occurred during those hard times he had to endure when he contracted the disease. Maybe it was his pretty Pakistani girlfriend who he helped get a visa to America or maybe it was that lovely German women whom he fixed the roof for. Perera now tested positive for HIV and so did his wife.

It was with shock and grief that Perera couldn't face the world as his image was now tarnished by the death of his beloved Sandun. He couldn't go on any more and he finally consumed rat poison. He was rushed to hospital but it was too late to save him and he died.

Today, his HIV positive wife lives alone with their first child who thankfully hasn't contracted the HIV virus.

However, if Perera had lived, he could have led a normal life and if he had checked his blood for HIV, he could have prevented his second child from getting the virus.

Suicide and grief is not the way out of AIDS, it is important to prove that even though you are affected, there is hope. Science is advancing and technology is changing and one day, there will be a cure for AIDS.

Until then, we must educate ourselves and our children so that they do not become victims to this dreadful disease that kills thousands every year around the world.

(Names are fictitious)