Living with HIV

Uganda is one of the most under developed countries in Africa, with a population of about 40 million people. There are a number of factors that have led Uganda to lag behind as far as HIV is concerned. I would like to take this great opportunity to talk more about stigma, treatment and prevention in detail. Stigma Due to misinformation about the virus, stigma is rising at a high rate; HIV-positive people are facing a very big challenge in the communities where they live and this has caused

About two months ago, in anticipation of the upcoming International AIDS Society Conference in Paris, France, along with the United States Conference on AIDS in Washington, DC I decided to attempt a poll of both HIV-positive individuals and healthcare providers who treat HIV-positive clients. The topic of this poll was Undetectable Equals Untransmittable (U=U). In order to reach HIV-positive survey participants, I submitted posts for participants on Facebook to several HIV based groups. Thes

I’ve realized, I’m not burning out, I’m having days when I wake up and say, “I just don’t want to do anything today”. August 15th, 2017, I received an email from the editor of PositiveLite asking if I had something for publication, that it’s been a while since my last submission. I haven’t responded to the email yet, deciding I would write something to explain why instead. I sat here most of the day and tried to think of a place to start, and it honestly became a struggle. I

I want to talk about the life cycle of those who engage in HIV work, because it’s bothering me. It bothers me from a personal perspective because as an older adult I am nearing the end of that cycle. But it also bothers me that as community we seem kind of impervious to the consequences of not only aging but becoming aged. And as HIV advocates who stick up for minorities, accommodate those who need accommodation, we seem to have hit a blind spot.  To put this in a wider context, discussion

Brenda Musenga is a determined woman. I’d had a sense of that already from reading this story by Paul Shalala, about a group of young HIV activists who had adapted Kevin Maloney’s “Rise Up to HIV+” campaign for stigma-busting use in their communities in Zambia. Paul’s story introduced and told a bit about each member of the group and what shone through to me at the time about all of them was their sheer determination not only to thrive in the face of adversity and ostracism, but to

When my guard is down, it comes to me. It flashes across my mind, an uninvited assault, sometimes when I am beginning to drift off to sleep or, more cruelly, when my mind is enjoying a pleasant reverie. It is then that the dark memory rushes in like a raid. He lived in a house with nice furnishings. That reassured me when I arrived for the hookup, given that so many of the other crystal meth addicts I encountered were barely holding on to the remnants of their lives. The others might have a s

Photo: © Chris Jepson I was born in Nigeria but I became a Londoner long before I was able to read or write, which according to some of my relatives makes me “a black man living in a white man’s world.” I know that this combined with the facts that I identify myself as a homosexual man who also happens to be HIV-positive hasn’t exactly set the scene for the most scar-free rainbow, but I have never given any of my negative experiences influence over how I viewed the world or what I

'Daniel' as she used to call me, 'you are so young and unfit to be working at such a tender age. You seem to have a potential of doing something better and in this connection, what is that good thing that a person can do for that will change your life forever? ' I had one unchangeable dream and that was to go back to school. That is something I always wished for but no one asked. Her question drew a lot of thoughts in my mind but in the long run, I settled on one decision; that was to open u

The Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV (GIPA) is a set of principles that highlights engagement, equity and social justice and places people living with HIV at the centre of the HIV movement. However, implementing GIPA in the workplace can be challenging. Is it doable? Are the principles still relevant in today’s work environment? James Watson talks with two people living with HIV who work in the sector to find out, Marvelous Muchenje a Program Coordinator at the Women’s Heal

Report after report and survey after survey demonstrates that for BAME people in LGBTQ communities racism is a near universal experience. While there is enough evidence, both empirical and anecdotal, to back up the claims, very rarely do these reports answer more difficult questions about the nature of this racism. The result is often a very ‘water is wet moment’ for queer people of colour at the heart of the matter, frustrated as to the lack of depth into these investigations, which stop

Killer Whale One of William Flett’s earliest childhood memories is of the plane he was travelling on touching down on the tarmac in Haida Gwaii one dark, rainy night. He was five years old. Though William and his parents lived on the islands of the Haida people situated off the north coast of B.C. for only a year before returning to Vancouver, its culture and rich artistic traditions had a lasting impact on William’s artistic expression. The Haida reverence for the natural world and their

To read the full article by Felicity Hannah, visit Independent, here. The long-term outlook of people living with HIV has been improving for years and last month it was revealed that a child in South Africa had been “virtually cured” of the disease. Research published earlier this year revealed that young people receiving the latest HIV drugs now have a “near-normal” life expectancy. Yet despite such profound changes in the health of people with the conditions, one in four say

Like so many, and always with appreciation, humility, and just a little bit of shock (sometimes), I lived well beyond my ‘best before date’. These many years later, I celebrate my life with HIV and my life – period – every single day, trying not to take its extraordinary complexities for granted. I also spend a whole lot of time reflecting on the incredible efforts of the community-based movement which has, over too many decades and in countless ways, made it possible for me, and for s

I don’t remember how I first heard about Bruce Richman but it was surely on social media. It was the summer of 2016. Bruce had started cropping up everywhere. He seemed charismatic, passionate, informed. I asked him for an interview. He obliged and we talked for an hour or so by phone. I posted the resulting interview on August 10, 2016  under the title “Bob Leahy talks to Bruce Richman, the man behind Undetectable = Uninfectious.” The same day we also published an editorial “Positive

August 9, 2017 Update: this isn't going away. . . . Here is what we heard this week from HALCO (HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic of Ontario). By the way, don't you just love the title of the report - "Public Health Approach to Case Management" that none in our community have even seen? That's us the report is talking about - and how our viral loads are to be managed by local Public Health offices. No thanks, says PositiveLite.com. And GIPA this is not! From HALCO . .  The Ministry of Health and Long-