HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day June 5, 2022
“Mobilize To Thrive: Prioritizing Quality Of Life” is the 2022 theme and call to action.
Hashtags: #Mobilize2Thrive & #HLTSAD
HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day (HLTSAD) is June 5, 2022 - MOBILIZE TO THRIVE Prioritizing Quality of Life. HLTSAD.ORG.
June 2022 — HLTSAD is not a one-day event. We are carrying our campaign throughout June 2022. We are using Pride as an opportunity to raise awareness that leads to action.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 50% of people with HIV are older than 50 years and account for 70% of total deaths among people with HIV,”
—The Lancet HIV in a series on Ageing with HIV on February 24, 2022
We don’t have the luxury of time to wait for the government to do the right thing. They must understand this is urgent.
The selection of June 5 for this annual observance coincides with the anniversary of the first official reporting of what became known as the AIDS epidemic on June 5, 1981. When the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] first reported on five cases of a mysterious disease affecting young gay men. June 5, 1981 is considered the start of the AIDS pandemic.
Today, HIV Long-Term Survivors (HLTS) represent a diverse group of people diagnosed with HIV before the advent of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy or HAART in 1996. We make up about 25% of all people living with HIV and AIDS. 1.2 million people are living with HIV in the U.S. That makes about 300,000 long-term survivors, defined as individuals who acquired HIV before 1996 and the introduction of HAART.
Often overlooked, HLTS includes people born with HIV or who acquired the virus as babies and are now in their 30s and 40s. HLTS are also those living with HIV and AIDS for over 25 years.
We are developing a social media campaign and tangible calls to action to improve the quality of our lives.
It’s up to us to set our action plan addressing the present-day and future needs, issues, and challenges facing people living longest with HIV/AIDS.
HLTSAD is not a time to look back at our traumatic pasts. (That’s for World AIDS Day.) Our goal over the coming months is for YOU to set our agenda and priorities for moving forward and take action to make changes.
People living with HIV/AIDS deserve to age with dignity.
Some Priorities
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Make the quality of life for HIV long-term survivors and older adults aging with HIV and AIDS a true priority
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Demand universal treatment access to help end the HIV epidemic, which is the message of the #JourneyTo400K campaign from the team that created Undetectable Equals Untransmittable (#UequalsU)
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Prioritize culturally aware mental health care
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Overcome the challenges of poverty and economic insecurity
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Fight discrimination and invisibility against older adults with HIV and AIDS. It is called “ageism.” We will not condone it.
Watch a short video…
Let’s Kick ASS—AIDS Survivor Syndrome started HLTSAD in 2014 and it the days sponsor.
“The older adult living with HIV has demonstrated a resiliency that has allowed them to look beyond the uncertainty that an HIV/AIDS diagnosis imparts. They will need that resiliency even more. And maybe they can share with all of us how we too can overcome the uncertainty of tomorrow.”
— Stephen Karpiak Ph.D., Senior Director for Research at the ACRIA Center on HIV & Aging at GMHC.
“When we talk about long-term survivors, there is a degree of resilience and hardiness that has let people become long-term survivors. That is something to capitalize on.”
— Mark Brennan-Ing Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist at Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, Hunter College, CUNY
With courage and compassion, we survived the darkest decades of the AIDS pandemic. It started 40 years ago, and AIDS is still a global pandemic.
Without access to effective treatments, survivors were forced to rely on themselves and each other. We exhibited strengths we didn’t know we had.
Let’s use the lessons we learned from AIDS to help the world cope with COVID-19 and a stark, stressful new reality where isolation is prevention.
As HIV/AIDS survivors, we’ve learned valuable lessons about living and survival, and we are ready to become elders, teachers, and leaders of our communities. They need support now and for the aftermath. Processing multiple casualties, the trauma of not being able to be with loved ones or watch them die alone on their iPads, and the inescapable nature of COVID will leave scars and traumatize the global community.
Without access to effective treatments, survivors were forced to rely on themselves and each other. We exhibited strengths we didn’t know we had. Let’s use the lessons we learned from AIDS to help the world cope with COVID-19 and a stark, stressful new reality where isolation is prevention.
time.com/5044760/hiv-world-aids-day/
312,000 people living with HIV in the U.S. became positive before 1996.
That’s 25% of all 1.2 million living with HIV who are Pre-HAART survivors*
*American Psychological Association
www.apa.org/pi/aids/resources/survivors-awareness.
Oh, and don’t chalk up our trauma to “PTSD”. It is way more prolonged and complex. It’s AIDS Survivor Syndrome (ASS).
Make a donation
let’s Kick ASS AIDS Survivor Syndrome, a 501(c)(3) California non-profit started in 2013. We launched HLTSAD in 2014. LKA is the lead sponsor of the official awareness day.
Based in San Francisco, our goal is empowering HIV Long-Term Survivors to thrive, Beyond raising awareness o change our work is both local and national.
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Contact
Tez Anderson
letskickass.hiv
Tez Anderson is the founder of Let’s Kick ASS-AIDS Survivor Syndrome. Based in San Francisco, there are chapters in Portland, Palm Springs and Austin.
Source: https://www.hltsad.org/
"Reproduced with permission - "Lets Kick ASS AIDS Survivor Syndrome"
Lets Kick ASS AIDS Survivor Syndrome
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