The government provides HIV medicines free of charge. Yet in one indigenous territory, cases and deaths are increasing at an alarming rate.
They don't hug him or shake his hand, and when he visits relatives to eat, he brings his own plate, spoon and cup. His family won't share utensils with him, as they fear being infected with the virus he carries, HIV. NPR agreed to only identify him by his first name to avoid further discrimination in his village for his diagnosis.
Dr. Orlando Quintero, in his office in Panama City, points to an chart. The blue that shows how HIV symptoms cease with treatment. He's the executive director of Probidsida, an advocacy group for people living with HIV and AIDS. Quintero himself contracted HIV in the DECADE TK and was inspired to start this group because of difficulties he faced in getting the medicines he needed.The number of infections continues to rise.
"After I left the home, my mom threw out the chair where I used to sit and burned the plate I used to eat from," says Joti, who is a short and slim 25-year-old, with chiseled cheek bones."I'm no longer welcome there." During the two years that Joti took traditional medicine, he lost a significant amount of weight and became so weak he was unable to walk. When a teacher at his school observed his feeble state, she offered to pay for his bus fare to travel to Gantes's clinic to resume taking the HIV medication., a prescription medicine used to treat HIV, once a day at 9 p.m.; the virus is no longer detectable in his blood.
Every three months, Ito, a tall and slender 29-year-old Ngäbe man with HIV embarks on a five-hour trek to the town of Pueblo Nuevo to pick up his antiretroviral medication. NPR is only identifying by his first name over his concerns about discrimination.
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