Maybe this isn’t the right forum.
I’m posting this for a friend, because she doesn’t want people to know who she is.
She was raped in Taiwan a while ago, but she didn’t go to the police. She’s afraid that she got HIV from the attack. It’s almost time for her to renew her contract at her buxiban and renew her ARC, but to renew her ARC she has to get a health check. She’s too scared to go get a health check, because if she did get HIV, and it is discovered during the health check, she will be deported. What should she do?
Her boss doesn’t understand why all of a sudden she is hesitating about coming back to work at their school again. I thought maybe she should confide in her boss, who is an ABC woman, and is very understanding.
Depending on which test they do for HIV you have a 4-6 month window of opportunity to test negative after you have been infected.
But for her peace of mind wouldn’t she want to know anyways to begin preventative care if she is positive. Current treatment is very good at surpressing HIV symptoms and prolonging an individual’s life expectancy.
[quote=“bababa”]Maybe this isn’t the right forum.
I’m posting this for a friend, because she doesn’t want people to know who she is.
She was raped in Taiwan a while ago, but she didn’t go to the police. She’s afraid that she got HIV from the attack. It’s almost time for her to renew her contract at her buxiban and renew her ARC, but to renew her ARC she has to get a health check. She’s too scared to go get a health check, because if she did get HIV, and it is discovered during the health check, she will be deported. What should she do?[/quote]
That’s absolutely horrible - I hope she’s coping OK with it. I’m NOT trying to be flippant here, but if she discovered she had HIV, would she really want to stay in Taiwan and teach anyway? Wouldn’t she rather go home and begin treatment? (I’m not saying the medical treatment is inferior here, just that she will presumably have supportive friends and family back home). Or is it the deportation aspect she’s worried about, as opposed to the leaving?
Yes, I believe there is a window period before one will test positive - the CDC says 3 to 6 months. So she should be fine for the test even if she is positive, assuming it didn’t happen that long ago. But she DOES need to find out! I don’t know about other STDs though - there’s a risk she might have contracted something else that carries a deportation risk as well :s
Good luck to her.
First of all, I am so sorry to hear that your friend was raped here. It’s such a terrible experience anywhere, but away from home is especially hard, I think. I too was raped (and beaten) almost three years ago by a local man. I would like to share a little of my experience with your friend to maybe help a little.
I went to the police and reported it. But I got very little help. After demanding justice for months, they found him and arrested him. From the DNA samples they got from my case, they were able to solve an 8-year old murder of a local woman here. It was kind of a high-profile case, considering the woman murdered was a police chief’s daughter. The man who did it was only 15 at the time of her murder but 23 when he attacked me. I put him away for 7 years.
One of the most important lessons I learned from all this, living in Taiwan, was that you can’t trust anybody. What I mean is that, I went to my work and explained everything. They were kind at first but then penalized me financially for missing work to recover and then treated me differently. They told me that for a Taiwanese woman, this sort of thing would be awful but because I am a “westerner” I am more sexually promiscuous and therefore could handle things.
If your friend is HIV positive, the sooner she knows, the better. She should go and get her tests renewed and prepare for a possibility of having to go home. But at work, she should say nothing. If the worst happens, then it’s good that she found out. I had the same scare when I was first tested after my rape. If I had tested positive, I would definately have left here to go home for emotional support and medical care.
When all this happened to me, I also thought my boss would support me and understand my situation. But she didn’t, and she actually made things so much worse for me.
Again, I am so sorry that this happened to your friend, and I wish her all the strength in the world to get through this terrible time.
Ladybird, I’m so sorry that you had that happen to you. I can’t imagine going through all of that, the experience itself and then everything that came after, without having any real support system.
Bababa, I agree with Daasgrrl that your friend should find out as soon as possible if she has been infected. If I were in her place, I think I would find a clinic to get the tests done myself, and hold off on the health exam for the ARC. If the clinic confirmed that she was HIV positive, they wouldn’t have to report it to the employer or any govt agency (no names at least), right?
No. The clinic is required by law to report positive HIV results. But you can get anonymous HIV testing at designated hospitals in Taiwan. Here is a list:
台北榮民總醫院 02-2875-1997 台北市石牌路二段201號
Taipei Rongzong 201 Shipai Rd. Section 2, Taipei
台北台大醫院 02-2312-3456轉5030 台北市中山南路 7 號
NTU Hospital 7, Zhongshan S. Rd. Taipei
台北三軍總醫院 02-2365-9055#88617
台北市汀州路三段40號綜合大樓
一樓門診檢驗室陳組長
02-8792-3311#88121
台北市內湖區成功路二段325號
一樓門診檢驗室鄭組長
林口長庚醫院 03-328-1200轉8151 桃園縣龜山鄉復興街5號
台中榮民總醫院 04-359-2525轉3087 台中市台中港路三段160號
台南成大醫學院附設醫院 06-235-3535轉5360 台南市勝利路138號
下午二樓抽血櫃台
高雄榮民總醫院 07-346-8098 高雄市左營區大中一路386號
高雄醫學院附設醫院 07-321-4227 高雄市三民區十全一路100號
You can also get an anonymouse saliva test by the old train station post office.
Yikes, LB, what a horrible thing to go through.
http://www.thebody.com/sowadsky/answers/quest187.htmlIt’s impossible to estimate that, but in a single act of vaginal intercourse, the chances of HIV passing from male to female is 0.1% to 20%. It might be comforting to know she’s got a good chance of being free from HIV, at least enough for her to go get a test.