Family of AIDS deceased breaks the silence

The family of the late Paul Omukuba, a Kenyan national, has broken a major taboo in admitting that a family member died of AIDS by decorating a newspaper death announcement with red ribbons, the symbol of the battle against HIV/AIDS, the BBC reported on Wednesday. Family members said they wished to wash away the stigma attached to AIDS in Africa, and hoped that others would follow their example by exposing the toll the disease is having on family life, the report said. Margaret Muigai, the dead man’s sister, said the subject was taboo in Kenya because AIDS was transmitted sexually (among other ways). “They feel embarrassed to say somebody has died of AIDS just because of the way it is caused, but it shouldn’t be like that. It should be like any other disease, and we shouldn’t feel embarrassed about it,” the BBC quoted Muigai as saying. Despite the prevalence of AIDS in Africa, deaths are more commonly blamed on TB (a common opportunistic disease among AIDS patients), cancer or, more vaguely, a long illness, it added.

Government statistics suggest that the number of people dying each day from AIDS has increased from 500 to 700 over the past five years, according to the BBC. Official figures record that 2.2 million Kenyans have HIV infection and some 250,000 are living with AIDS.