Botswana must avoid the HIV mistakes

As a country we made a big mistake by raising the prevalence of HIV to the level of a national secret, before former president Mogae appealed to the International community for help. In a way the mistake was understandable because HIV was closely associated with sex, a taboo subject among us.

But now we have coronavirus, a virus that has no link to any taboo subject. Coronavirus infects through cough and other methods that we have absolutely no reason to be ashamed of. It is therefore disheartening to see us again failing or refusing to REVEAL the identities of infected people. The minister of health was on TV earlier tonight, telling the nation that two more people have contracted coronavirus. Those who have come into contact with the two people have now been traced, according to the minister. Strangely though, the minister did not reveal the identity of those two people, or of anybody who is known to have come into contact with the two people. In my humble opinion this is wrong. The minister should have revealed the names of all the affected people.

Look, anybody can get coronavirus anytime. The question of the affected and infected being stigmatised should not arise. Nobody is going to stigmatise coronavirus sufferers. On the contrary, knowing who has it will help those who may have been infected by the asymptomatic sufferer to come forward for testing. So please let us not repeat the mistake we made with HIV! 

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