Confidentiality of HIV status

For a person who is HIV-positive like me, disclosing one's status to the immediate family and even to friends can be such an emotional, even psychological burden, because you can never tell how they will take it. Will they still accept you? Will they disown you? Will they shy away from you or be scared of you? One also has to consider the effect it will have on a family member who has frail health - whether young or old - if you disclose your HIV status. There are many things to think about before disclosing it.

So, it really pains and angers me when I hear of someone who carelessly tells someone else the HIV-positive status of a person, regardless of the intentions. And with what has happened, the damage has been done to the HIV-positive individual concerned and you can never take back or erase what you said like it written on a blackboard. Careless disclosure of a person's HIV-positive status may even have far-reaching consequences not only on him/her but on that person's family also. The privacy of the HIV-positive person should be respected and upheld.

Section 3 (b) (2) of Republic Act 8504 or the Philippine Aids Prevention and Control Act of 1998 provides that the right to privacy of individuals with HIV/Aids shall be guaranteed by the state. But let me stress that this does not only cover the state or the government but everyone as well.

It pays to be really careful and think many, many times before telling a friend about your HIV-positive status. Is this friend really trustworthy or is he/she be a blabbermouth?

For those who have been told by a person that he/she is HIV-positive, respecting the confidential nature of the status of a person living with HIV (PLHIV) can help unload in some way the emotional and/or psychological burden of the individual concerned instead of making things bad for him/her.