I am living my life with HIV!
It’s more than 30 years since the first diagnosis of HIV (1984) and in 2015 we really are in a great place!
I am a gay man living with HIV since 2012 and would urge you to find out your status.
I had a serious health episode in January 2012 (when I was sero-converting) and had a health screening 3 months later, in April with a positive result for HIV.
This is no longer the 80s and in the UK, at least, we have free access to antiretroviral drugs which suppress the HIV viral load (level of virus present in the blood) and boost the immune system (CD4 count). The fact is that medication manages the virus and with time you do change your way of thinking about HIV…and most importantly life goes on!
HIV is no longer a death sentence but it is something you can live with and can manage.
Stigma still exists three decades later about HIV and stigma creates fear and stops people going and getting tested!
More people should get informed and educated about HIV as many remain unaware of the methods of HIV infection. Sure, you know about unsafe sex but can you think of six bodily fluids that can be exchanged between 2 people and spread infection? (1) blood 2) semen (cum) 3) pre-seminal fluid (pre-cum) 4) rectal fluids 5) vaginal fluids 6) breast milk)
In 2014, the government (Public Health England) released figures that 110,000 people are living with HIV and that approximately a quarter of those, 26,000, are yet to be diagnosed in the UK.
The real message in this piece is getting diagnosed is taking power back and all about taking sexual responsibility. Assuming someone is negative because you haven’t spoken about it, isn’t knowing someone’s status.
Equally, having an out of date test result isn’t reliable and doctors recommend regular HIV tests. The sooner you get tested and should you be diagnosed as HIV positive, the better your chances of staying healthy and living a normal life span.
Sure, it’s daunting but I am glad I got diagnosed early so I could treat my HIV and quickly bring it to an undetectable level (still present but less than 50 copies of the virus in each millilitre of my blood). This means that I am not infectious with an undetectable level of HIV. HIV is still present in my system but in such low levels that it is ‘undetectable’.
In fact, my HIV has helped me to re-evaluate my life and while I accept I made a mistake and had unprotected sex with a guy, I would say life does go on and I am living with my status and work full-time in the public sector.
I took control, found out my status and now make informed choices when I sleep with someone.
I am on meds and know my status and a lot about my health and take a very active interest in it. Thanks to medical advancements, I can expect to live a normal, healthy and long life.
People who know they are HIV positive and are successfully getting treated really are in a great place and I believe in reducing stigma and getting a test and finding out the facts – take control, get informed and get on with life!
KD Brighton
You must be logged in to post a comment.