Social Stigma....

The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Bank sent me a letter about 7 monts ago telling me I had a positive test result for an HIV screen. The letter then went on to say that I tested negative for all of the following tests. But, since their job is to protect the blood supply, I had to wait six months and then be retested before I could donate again. Fair enough. It is an inconvenience for me but I'd rather have confidence in the blood supply than have them bow to my individual preferences.

I called and talked to them, asked them about what kind of tests were done and am 100% positive it is a false positive. Especially since I have done nothing that would even put me in the slightest danger of contracting HIV. So, if this happened to you, would you be embarassed to tell people? Since then a couple of blood drives have come up at Rice, and since I usually donate, people have asked me "you want to go over and donate with me?" and I say "I can't. I came up false positive for HIV so I have to wait a few months." They immediately get all appologetic or shocked like I shouldn't be saying things like that outloud.

Relax people. I said "false positive". When I called to reschedule my retest the guy said "you can just come in and say you don't want to donate, just drop off a few samples and not tell them what it is for". Yeah, like they couldn't figure it out. And, why would I care? My guess is they are more worried about other people who are donating over hearing and getting freaked out.

I think it is getting past the time when we should all be freaking out about HIV. Yes it is a growing epidemic and steps should be taken to control and reverse it's spread. But, it has become fairly ubiquitous among all cultures and classes. You can no longer make assumptions about a person's life style based on the fact that they contract HIV. And, given technological advances, it isn't even such a terrible prognosis in the short term. I don't think people should be so shocked or damning of a person if they reveal they have HIV. Unless of course you are in the middle of having sex with them.