Scans of article[]

Editable text of article[]

AIDS HITS HOME

By K. F. TANG

A HAZY awareness of Aids, perhaps today’s most feared and least understood four-letter English word, is beginning to seep into the Singaporean's consciousness.

Discos have been told to ban homosexuals from their establishments, people now think twice about receiving food from a friend's chopsticks, employers are engaged in revising employment and recruitment policies just in case one of their workers is stricken with the disease.

One dentist is so worried, she is considering, even though she is mid-forties, giving up work for calm of retirement, away from potential infection from her bleeding patients.

The heightened consciousness is not anywhere as strong as the health authorities would wish. But at least some people are beginning to be more careful about sexual relationships, though most still appear to think that Aids cannot possibly happen to them.

Dr K.V. Ratnam, the Middle Road Hospital dermato-immunologist who discovered the first three cases of Aids, says: "There are no high-risk groups anymore, just high-risk activities."

The Singapore public has come some way since April 23, 1983, when Aids first made the headlines here. Then the deadly disease seemed very remote to many. A Straits Times report of that day said: "Most of the Aids victims are homosexual men, but the disease also attacks intravenous drug abusers, haemophiliacs and Haitians."

Because the "mysterious" new disease, recognised in the early 80s, destroys the body’s natural immunity to infection, it added, "diseases easily treated in normal people have killed seven out of 10 Aids victims so far".

Two years to the month later, the dreaded disease was discovered here. Three homosexual men in Singapore were found with an Aids-linked virus.

Last April, the first of four Singaporeans, all men, died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, to give it its full name. The second died in October, followed by two more in December. All four died within a year of their diagnosis. The deaths leave 16 known carriers of the Aids virus, of whom two-thirds are male homosexuals who have had sexual encounters with foreigners either locally or abroad.

The December deaths climaxed a year in which the collective Singaporean psyche seemed to take a leap in Aids consciousness. Some 66,000 people, for instance, attended Aids exhibitions at six shopping centres in October and November.

If there was any doubt that Aids could strike somebody known to Singaporeans, the death of Singapore-born choreographer Goh Choo San removed all doubt. When he died from an Aids-related disease in New York late last year, it was a shock that jolted many out of their complacency. The death of a Singapore Airlines chief steward a little more than a week later brought it even closer to home.

The Government, realising the urgency, has set up an Aids Task Force and a National Advisory Committee on Aids to educate the public about the killer disease, for which there is yet no cure.

The first world summit on Aids, organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO), in London at the end of January this year issued a sombre yet optimistic forecast of one million Aids cases by 1991, compared with the 100-million estimate by the US Congress' General Accounting Office earlier.

Misconceptions abound largely because medical science still knows little and the public even less. For example, a Dutch airline took out and burned a plane seat on which a man with Aids vomited. Yet Aids is not known to be spread by vomit.

In fact, there is no evidence that Aids can be transmitted through air, water, food, mosquito bites or casual contact - even quite close contact - in the course of daily activities.

Only direct blood and blood-semen vaginal fluid contact have been conclusively shown to transmit the disease. The Singapore Ministry of Health has issued guidelines for the different professions that may come in contact with these fluids, such as dentists and laboratory technicians, funeral parlour workers, prison personnel, barbers and acupuncturists.

Precautions are also taken to protect the blood supply. Dr Ong Yong Wan, medical director of the Blood Transfusion Service and chairman of the Aids Task Force, says they are in line with those in developed countries. They include a medical interview with prospective donors and the screening of donated blood. These safeguards, she says, make the risk of contaminated blood getting into the bank "very small".

The risk comes from the so-called "window period" between infection and the body showing signs of it. Blood from a donor in this state would join other normal blood in the Blood Bank.

But most often, Aids comes through sexual contact, whether homosexual or heterosexual, when one of the parties is a carrier. Obviously, one of the high risk groups comprises those who indulge in casual sex. In the words of Dr Luisa Lee, medical director of the Health Ministry's Training and Health Education Department, "the best protection is to avoid casual sex altogether".

At least one man seems to have taken this advice to heart. Mrs F, a 35-year-old housewife, says: "My husband is actually very flirtatious and used to be quite a playboy even after we were married. But since the Aids publicity, he has been coming home early and I think he fools around a lot less."

Among those who persist with their amorous adventures, caution is the in thing. Their armour is the condom, sanctioned by the Health Ministry which has lifted the ban on its advertising, though some feel it may have the opposite effect and encourage promiscuous behaviour.

“It is always in my wallet, next to my American Express card.” says Mr H, a 44-year-old divorcee and a manager in a large corporation. adding he “will not leave home without it”.

A 28-year-old single woman says: “I used to carry condoms with me because seven out of 10 guys I meet did not. They have not wised up to the notion that we are living in dangerous times.”

Condom use, however, can only reduce the risk of infection, not guarantee protection against Aids.

Others have a more cavalier attitude. Secretary Miss B. 25, says: “The possibility of catching Aids has never bothered me. Maybe it is because I know the kind of people I date and their lifestyles and don’t see them as Aids carriers. I don’t sleep with any Tom, Dick and Harry. Life is too short to worry about all this. If you want to have fun, then why worry so much about it?” she adds with a toss of her short hair.

Many seem to disagree with her, if booming condom sales are any indicator. Mr Lee Ban Kit, the Far East regional manager of LRC Overseas Ltd, reported a 15-to 18-per cent jump in sales of its Durex brands since early last year. But Mr Lee, whose company claims a 60-per cent share of the market, attributes this to “a widening of distribution and better merchandising.

He says: “Aids is not such a big factor because Singapore is not like Bangkok where people buy sex.”

Homosexuals, who form another high-risk group, engender much concern and debate. More so since they are seen to be associated with certain personal services, such as hairdressing, waiting on tables and serving as aircraft cabin crew.

A secretary, 32, says: "I worry each time my hairdresser who is gay and attracts a gay clientele shaves the nape of my neck. What if he nicks me after nicking a homosexual client who could be an Aids carrier?"

The possibility is as real as the probability is small.

Two owners of salons in Orchard Road pooh-pooh the idea that Aids might come with a new hair-cut or beauty treatment. The first, a woman, says: “It's silly. You can’t catch Aids from cutting or blow-drying your hair. We sterilise all our combs, brushes, facial sponges and extractors every night. The towels are soaked in Dettol before they are laundered by machine.

“We use disposable needles for eyebrow tattooing and extracting pimples.”

Sterilisation and a good wash should do the trick. The Aids virus dies after 15 to 30 minutes in temperatures higher than 60 degrees Celsius and soapy water and bleach are hostile to it.

Even so, one nervous customer of another hairstylist says: "I’d feel better if the beauty salons would sterilise their combs and brushes after every client, not only after the day’s work.”

Another hairdresser, a professed homosexual, whose "business has never been better”, says: “Anyone who says our business has been affected by the Aids scare must be very jealous. Most customers don't know or care if the hairstylist is gay."

At the Clark Hatch gymnasium at Marco Polo Hotel, manager Andy Ooi dismisses the possibility of the 400 member fitness centre being a focus of infection, although he says: “I won’t deny we have gays here."

Remarking that homosexuality is the individual’s business, not his. Mr Ooi is not concerned that the virus may be accidentally passed through two people getting cut at the same time. "In my eight years in this business. I have not had a case of two persons having cuts in the same month," he says.

As for catching Aids through the use of common facilities, two men in the locker room laugh derisively. "Well, I won’t be here if I am afraid," says one. “Anyway, liquid soap from dispensers is used here and the towels issued are freshly washed.”

Which is fair enough, though probably they need not have worried too much even if ordinary soap was used at the centre.

But for some, living with the fear of Aids comes with the job. Beginning with dentists who now work in surgical masks, sterile gloves, goggles and other protective gear, those at risk include actresses.

Popular television star Xiang Yun, 26, who has been with the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation for seven years, says: "My heart jumps a little at the thought of Aids. Fortunately, it is not usually very passionate kissing that we have to do. Anyway, the few men I have to kiss are familiar to me. We know one another’s background, and they are not going to give the disease to me.”

But the actress need not be unduly worried. The Aids virus has been found in small quantities in saliva, yet no one has been known to catch it this way.

A woman advertising executive, 29, says: “In advertising. you meet and socialise with a lot of gays. I have learned to quietly avoid sharing drinks or food with them and kissing any of them.

"This whole Aids thing can really be blown out of proportion. I think we just have to be more careful and try not to get paranoid.”

A stewardess who was a colleague of the Aids airline worker who died says: "There is a fear among the stewards and stewardesses of catching the disease. When friends get grounded for an unusually long time, we gel suspicious.

“As for me, now I do not take drinks fixed by others anymore. And if I get a minor cut, I immediately put on a plaster, unlike in the past when I would dismiss it as a small cut."

It is not just individuals. Employers are worried too, but many have yet to work out a well-defined Aids policy.

For example, a spokesman for the Public Service Division which employs some 130,000 civil servants says:

"We are awaiting the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee on Aids for the formulation of a specific Aids policy. If a civil servant is found with Aids, we will treat him like any other patient with a communicable disease such as tuberculosis and have him warded in hospital."

Meanwhile, Furama Hotel has already decided it will not allow homosexuals to work in the food and beverage departments and will fire any known Aids carriers.

But one organisation, the 10,000-strong Singapore Civil Defence Force, seems unperturbed. If its rescuers suffer a wound and then come into contact with bleeding rescue victims who are carriers, they could theoretically get Aids. But Lieutenant Subandi Somo, a staff officer of its medical department, says: "The first priority of rescuers should be to rescue their victims. Concern for their own safety should be secondary.

“The chances of a rescuer contracting Aids through contact with victims are small and unproven. So we are not taking special precautions against Aids.”

Some people are avoiding certain establishments where they feel they may catch Aids.

Man-of-the-world Mr H, the divorcee, says: "Many of my friends now restrain themselves when they go to massage parlours. No more the works for them."

Says Lily, a masseuse at a hotel’s health centre, a week before the Lunar New Year: "Business is so slow, sometimes all I get to do is twiddle my thumbs.”

But she vehemently denies that Aids has anything to do with it. “It must be the New Year. Money’s tight when people have to give out hong bao." she says.

Is she afraid of getting Aids? "More than any customer. you bet!"

“What to do? I need to make a living. Man proposes. God disposes,” she philosophises.

The fear of Aids extends to people’s behaviour as consumers, a fact taken into account by shopkeepers.

Some customers trying on swimsuits in department stores and boutiques arc now so particular, they refuse to touch one without a plastic hygiene shield.

When it comes to cosmetics, the Ester Lauder girls, for instance, insist customers use cotton buds rather than apply lipsticks or make-up colours directly from testers. Its beauty consultants use disposable spatulas to dispense potions and creams.

References[]

KF Tang, "AIDS hits home", The Sunday Times, 6 March 1988[1],[2].

Acknowledgements[]

This article was archived by Roy Tan.

Archive of "AIDS hits home", The Sunday Times, 6 March 1988

Contents

Scans of article[]

Editable text of article[]

See also[]

References[]

Acknowledgements[]

Fan Feed