Another One of those Paradigm Shifts We Need

Why is it OK that a person should feel uncomfortable having an HIV-positive person bagging their groceries, or sharing the common kitchen at work? Why is that socially acceptable? Why is it that the positive person is punished for putting the world at risk (sometimes at phantom risk) for HIV simply by breathing in the vicinity of so-called "clean" people? Is he or she somehow less deserving of that space? Do we not live in a world surrounded by risk? Do we not take proper precautions to protect ourselves every single day? Is it not worth it to spare a human being's livelihood by adopting general precautions in our daily lives, so that we protect ourselves from risk and then banish these discriminatory feelings from our minds, accepting that an HIV-positive person could very well be among us, but that it's alright because we're protecting ourselves against real risk, and learning how to differentiate that from perceived risk?

What we need is another one of those paradigm shifts, where we start to look at old problems with new eyes. Maybe we need to start putting education into people not just about how to protect themselves from getting HIV, but about how it's their own responsibility in this era of HIV/AIDS pandemicity (is that even a word?) to protect themselves in daily life. This is just one aspect of a very complex issue, but maybe if ordinary people were empowered to step forward and do that, PLWHA in India (and apparently Canada, and likely many other countries, too)wouldn't lose jobs and livelihood, live on the margins of society, and perpetuate the disease.