KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: After three months of medical leave because she contracted tuberculosis due to her low immune system, Sheila (not her real name) was forced to tell her employers that she was HIV positive.
The immediate reaction was to hold a meeting about her and make a decision on "pensioning" her off.

They were unsuccessful, of course, but the result of her "coming out" made its mark in other ways.

After returning to work from leave, Sheila realised that every one in the building that she worked in knew about her "positive" condition, right down to the canteen operators.

"People would not sit with me or talk to me but they would talk about me."

The management also instructed the canteen staff to make sure that the plates and cutlery she used when eating in the canteen were washed in boiling water.

Not only did she have to eat alone but she had to bear the humiliation of the canteen staff grabbing her plate and spoon to make sure they were not mixed with the rest and washed separately.

Before she fell ill, she had brought food to the office for her co-workers who loved her home-cooked dishes.

After finding out about her condition, nobody wanted to eat her food from home any more. Needless to say, the stigmatisation was hard to bear.

"There were times when I thought: 'Why don't I just die?'"

But because she had four children to support then, she could not stop going to work.

So, instead, she worked hard at being strong mentally and emotionally.

"If they (my co-workers) did not come to me to talk, I would go up to them and initiate conversation."

As she started to talk to people again, she even educated them about the disease, bringing pamphlets about HIV/AIDS to the office.

She was infected in 2000 by her ex-husband who was a drug addict.

When she regained her healthy looks and possibly also because of the information on HIV/AIDS that she provided, her colleagues accepted her and even ate her home-cooked food

This proved that the discrimination stemmed from ignorance and fear.

"Everyone needs to be educated.

"People who are HIV positive should not have to go through what I did."