Hostile glances, isolation, people refusing to help. These are only some of the things José Odir Miranda endured when he checked into a state hospital in El Salvador in 1997, suffering from AIDS.
In December 1996, after a series of examinations he had done after a sudden weight loss, he discovered that he was HIV-positive. The following year, his weight fell to 82 pounds, his T-cell count (a measure of the cells the body uses to defend against illness) dropped to 20 per cubic millimeter, whereas the normal count ranges from 500 to 1,500. He could no longer walk.
Miranda was hospitalized for a long time under very difficult conditions. “I suffered the discrimination of the health system and I decided to change it,” he declared. Miranda emerged from these crises thanks to his will to live and to some expired medications that a doctor obtained for him.
Now 31, he is determined to fight as long as his body permits it. His hospital experiences motivated he and five other HIV-positive persons to establish the Asociación Atlacatl 1° de Diciembre de El Salvador, whose main objective was to defend the rights of persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Of the five, Miranda is the only one still alive. “God has allowed me to live, and it’s for a reason,” he confesses. “Not hiding my illness has served me well and the support of my family has been essential,” he maintains. “We don’t want favors from anyone, just equal conditions. We are not pathetic, and we don’t want people to view us that way.”
In 1998 Miranda embarked on a well-publicized fight to change governmental policies regarding the care for persons living with AIDS. As a result of a stream of complaints filed with the Attorney General’s Office for Human Rights and the Supreme Court in El Salvador, as well as with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C., Salvadoran citizens with HIV now have access to modern antiretroviral drug therapies through the country’s Social Security system. The government has also adopted protocols of care and has implemented a series of programs for persons living with the virus. The media have joined Miranda’s efforts.
For now, Miranda wants to continue fighting for the rights of HIV carriers as long as his health allows it. “I am committed to this till the end. I don’t know how many more years I will live, but I accept God’s will. I will continue to do what I'm doing until He takes me,” he says.