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Positively Positive - Living with HIV/AIDS:
HIV/AIDS News Archive - March 2020
Some Notes on Learning From AIDS Activism for Our Responses to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic
March 23, 2020 -
While living though the current Coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis I am struck by the connections between the AIDS crisis (which is also not over) and this health crisis. These connections are not often being made or remembered in the commentaries and analysis I have seen. At the same time there are also major differences between these two different health crises including mode of transmission, impact on people’s bodies and health and to some extent who is most affected. I was actively involved in AIDS organizing and activism in the 1980s and 1990s and have also been involved in documenting some of these histories. In this initial sketch I try to draw out some of what can be learned from the history of AIDS organizing and activism for the current pandemic. I know this is partial and limited but I feel an urgency to get it out there. Please feel free to add to it or critique it. It is intended to get discussion going.
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UNAIDS calls for a human rights approach to the COVID-19 outbreak that puts communities at the centre
GENEVA, 20 March 2020- UNAIDS is calling on countries to adopt a human rights-based approach in responding to the global outbreak of COVID-19 that puts communities at the centre and respects the rights and dignity of all. To help guide governments, communities and other stakeholders in planning and implementing measures to contain the pandemic, UNAIDS has produced a new guidance document that draws on key lessons from the response to the HIV epidemic: Rights in the time of COVID-19: lessons from HIV for an effective, community-led response.
Get Rid of the Term “AIDS”?
March 17, 2020 - (How My Entire Life Suddenly Became Parenthetical)
The other day, I was sitting with three very good friends planning an upcoming retreat for long-term survivors of the AIDS pandemic. We’ve been holding these retreats twice a year for the past seven years. Three of us are long-term survivors and one is an ally. Now, “long-term survivor” is subject to interpretation, but, for my purposes here, I will define “long-term” as having lived through and survived the height of pandemic prior to protease inhibitors being made widely available in 1996. This definition allows for not only those living with the virus in their bodies, but also allows for spouses, friends, family members, healthcare providers, et al., who also lived through those years and experienced the same unprecedented loss of life the pandemic brought with it.
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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), HIV and hepatitis C: What you need to know
17 March 2020 - The World Health Organization has declared that there is a pandemic caused by the spread of a new coronavirus. This virus is called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and causes a disease called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
UNAIDS welcomes government’s decision to make PrEP routinely available across England
GENEVA, 17 March 2020- UNAIDS warmly welcomes the decision made to make pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) available to everyone who needs it in England. Activists and advocates have been campaigning for a number of years to make the life-saving preventative HIV medicine available to people at higher risk of HIV and on 15 March the government announced that PrEP will be made available across the country as part of the government’s efforts to end HIV transmission by 2030.
The ‘London Patient,’ Cured of H.I.V., Reveals His Identity
March 9, 2020 - Adam Castillejo endured a decade of grueling treatments and moments of despair to become only the second person to be cured of H.I.V. Now, he says, “I want to be an ambassador of hope.”
A year after the “London Patient” was introduced to the world as only the second person to be cured of H.I.V., he is stepping out of the shadows to reveal his identity: He is Adam Castillejo.
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Forty years into the HIV epidemic, AIDS remains the leading cause of death of women of reproductive age—UNAIDS calls for bold action
GENEVA/JOHANNESBURG, 5 March 2020 - Gender discrimination and violence, gaps in education and lack of economic empowerment and protection of sexual and reproductive health and rights are blocking progress
Ahead of International Women’s Day, UNAIDS has launched a new report showing that the stark inequalities and inequities between men and women are continuing to make women and girls more vulnerable to HIV. We’ve got the power urges governments to do more to empower women and girls and fulfil their human rights.
Might cost issues affect the success of HIV care programs in the future?
3 March 2020- Over the past 15 years several important advances have been made in the care and treatment of HIV infection. Clinical trials have found that initiating HIV treatment (ART) early results in better measures of health. Treatment guidelines now recommend that ART be offered to all people who test positive for HIV regardless of their CD4+ cell count. The effects of ART are so tremendous that scientists increasingly expect that many HIV-positive people will live into their senior years.
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