Ionel Belfiore

Ionel Belfiore, the 17-year-old son of Bill and Susan Belfiore, wrote this “I believe” essay about the importance of accepting people living with HIV for his advanced placement U.S. history course.

I Believe

I believe that in the titanic struggle against HIV, acceptance is just as important as finding a cure. All around the world, including the United States, people with the HIV virus are secretive about the disease because of the fear of being ostracized by their family or friends. This secrecy leads to the spread of the virus because nobody knows who has the virus or who doesn’t have it. I believe the most important thing about having HIV is to be open about it, and, in turn, accept it yourself.

I believe that many problems with the HIV virus are caused by the lack of acceptance in the world. In Africa, women are afraid to admit that they have the HIV virus for fear of being abandoned by their husbands and kicked out of their villages. This stigma also affects many people in the United States, who refuse to tell people that they have the disease because they are afraid that they will not be accepted anymore. I know a mother who never told her children that they were HIV-positive because she was afraid how they might be treated once that knowledge was out in the open.

When HIV was first discovered, those who were found to have the disease were generally abandoned by people that they knew and once considered friends. I believe that many people still fear HIV-positive people and this has led those with the virus to continue to be secretive about the disease. The consequences of this secrecy are very damaging to the community because the disease will spread more rapidly and affect more people.

I also believe that if a person with HIV wants to be accepted in their community, he must first accept the virus within himself. Hating the virus is like hating any other part of your body, and if you cannot support yourself, how can you expect other people to support you?

Although it seems like a crazy statement to most people, I am happy I contracted the HIV virus, something that occurred when I was a baby in Romania. Even though doctors originally believed that the HIV virus would be the bane of my very existence, I believe it has been one of my greatest blessings. If I had not contracted the HIV virus I never would have been placed in an orphanage or met my mother and father. I also never would have been adopted into a wonderful family or had such an amazing life in the United States. I do not hold any grudges toward this terrible disease and have accepted it in my life.

Ultimately, I believe that HIV’s lack of acceptance in the community is as dangerous as the disease itself. As the head of UNAIDS, Peter Piot, once said, “Stigma silences individuals and communities, saps their strength, increases their vulnerability, isolates people, and deprives them of care, of support. We must break down these barriers or the epidemic will have no chance of being pushed back.”

I hope that my voice has benefited others, and that someday the world will more readily accept those affected by this disease.

Read Bill Belfiore's Story of Hope.