HIV in the UAE:
■ Lack of accurate data in UAE fuels HIV stigma
■ Emirati HIV sufferer wants help to find a partner
■ Emirati man with HIV held for more than a decade at health facility
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ABU DHABI // A 45-year-old Emirati with HIV said there should be a “matchmaking” programme for people in his position.
“I’m a grown man and I have my needs,” said A A. “Does the Government want me to commit adultery and risk infecting someone else?
“No one will accept that their daughter [will] marry someone with HIV and I don’t want to pass the disease to anyone. Why don’t they help me find a suitable wife?
“Or would they like me to go abroad and marry a foreigner, and bring her back to the UAE?”
A A contracted the virus in 1986 after a blood transfusion. He lives with his parents.
“My family are not worried that I have Aids. My mother just wants to see me married and have children.”
In his quest to find a partner, A A asked for a letter from the Judicial Department to demand that the Health Authority find him a wife who is also HIV-positive.
“I was ignored,” he said. “I went to the Health Authority over and over again, but they just told me to go away and find a wife on my own. How am I supposed to do that? What are my chances of finding a woman with HIV? They have a database with everyone with the disease, so why can’t they help me?”
He insists on marrying an Emirati.
“All expats are deported as soon as they test positive for HIV, so I have no chance with an expat. And why would I want to bring a foreigner into the UAE with HIV instead of helping an Emirati woman with the disease who also wants to get married?”
A A said there should be support groups for patients like him.
“There is nothing for us in the UAE,” he said. “There are no societies or groups for us to meet and help one another. We are spread out across the country and none of us are in touch.”
A support group, he said, would also help to pair up people with HIV and ensure that they married each other instead of running the risk of infecting a healthy person.
“These women need to get married, too,” said A A. “Doesn’t a brother or a parent of a woman with HIV want to see their sister or daughter married and move on with her life, or do they just want to lock her in?”
He said that while the Government is understanding to people with HIV, more needs to be done.
“I have a job and my medication is covered by insurance. The law says that no one is allowed to discriminate against us, and thankfully the Government doesn’t.
“I just wish there was a concerned body that would help with our needs and support us.”
He said finding someone to share his life with was his only hope.
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About this package:
Despite increased awareness, stigma and a lack of statistics on patients infected with HIV persist in the UAE. People prefer to conceal their status, believing that treatment in the UAE would expose them, say experts.
A lack of support for patients is a concern for a 45-year-old Emirati with HIV, who believes there should also be a “matchmaking” programme for people in his position.
According to a report by the Population Reference Bureau in coordination with the United Nations, Iran is one of the only regional countries to successfully introduce Positive Clubs for people with the disease.
Meanwhile an Emirati man with HIV has been waiting 16 years to be released from government care because his family won’t give their consent and despite UAE law saying nationals with HIV should not be detained.
salnuwais@thenational.ae
