Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters Media - Friday December 1, 2000
Amy Tan
"People relate to experiences more than advertisements or advocacy. When they see a real-life example it's always a totally different experience,'' Yong told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"I'm prepared to share this because it helps a lot of people understand.'' But in strait-laced Singapore, Yong clings to the cloak of online anonymity to shield her family.
"I prefer keeping how I look a private matter because it has to do with the privacy of my family which I value very much,'' she said. For similar reasons of privacy, Yong refuses to say how she became infected.
Only one Singapore AIDS activist, Paddy Chew, has ever publicly declared that he suffers from the disease. Chew, who died in August 1999, conducted similar webchats to discuss his one-man play about AIDS.
"There's definitely a lot of stigma against HIV and AIDS in Singapore. People are not dumb. They're not ignorant about how you get it any more. They're just very discriminatory.''
Yong was diagnosed as being HIV-positive at 18 when she went to donate blood at school. HIV is the virus that leads to AIDS.
Two other members of Singapore's sole non-governmental AIDS lobby group, Action for AIDS (AFA), joined Yong online.
A small group of about twenty logged into the session. Questions from the online community were decidedly civil. Curious web chatters asked Yong how she was paying for costly HIV medication. Others wanted to know about the risk of contracting HIV from oral sex.
Dr Stuart Koe, an AFA member, said online that such webchats with HIV-positive people were common in the United States and Britain.
Yong, who is currently working toward a part-time degree, was not discouraged by the tiny turnout. She hopes to carry out more webchat sessions in the future.
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