April 18. 2009

Nadja Benaissa

I have been reading public feedback on the Nadja Benaissa case, which is the story of a pop star in Germany that has been arrested for sleeping with three men without telling them she is HIV positive. It has been confirmed that one of her sex partners has contracted the disease. The other two await test results.

Benaissa was born in Germany to a black Muslim Moroccan father and a white German mother. She got pregnant at 17 years of age, then went back and obtained her high school degree. She is a beautiful singer, whose looks got her a lot of attention in the music industry.

Many people seem to be in disbelief that Nadja has HIV, commenting she's so pretty, like the disease doesn't strike attractive people. It reveals the mindset of many and how they view the disease. It is apart of what is fueling the spread of HIV at an alarming rate - people judging by appearance as the determining factor whether one is free of infection.

Anybody can contract HIV and people with the disease do not always have the appearance of failing health. A select number of people of certain ancestry have been found to have a gene resistant to certain aspects of it, but they are not immune.

The disease has mutated, with stronger strains appearing in cases that have come out of San Francisco, California and parts of Africa over the last year. 

There is a positive to Nadja's story. She has HIV and made it into a band that became the most successful girl group in German music history. In spite of HIV, she became a successful singer, with a full life and busy career.

The negative and regrettable side of her story, based on reports, is she did not exercise social conscience to protect others from HIV, which is unlawful in her country, carrying a jail sentence. In Germany and other parts of Europe and Britain, it is a criminal offense to knowingly infect someone with HIV. People have been successfully tried and convicted under these laws.

There are things people can learn from Nadja's story. Just because a person has HIV, doesn't mean they can't have a productive life. Do not judge a book by its cover, as HIV can happen to anyone. Do not judge HIV and AIDS victims for being unwell, as they are not dirty, just people trying to cope with disease.