The writer of this blog post is Belinda, Hivpoint´s Health Buddy 2023. The Health Buddies are Hivpoint´s advocates who spread knowledge about sexual health, including HIV and sexually transmitted infections, in migrant and refugee communities. For the blog Belinda interviewed a person living with HIV.
When people hear about hiv, some of them get scared. They think it is relates to death. But things have changed now, with current medications it is a condition such as any other like diabetes that you have to take medication every day.
I interviewed a person living with HIV, Asli,and she described her feelings like this:
‘‘I have been living with HIV for almost 10 years now. When I first got diagnosed, I was so scared that I wanted to die. At first I thought I would die a horrible death from HIV. Then I went through counselling and a nurse talked to me about the disease and medication. Even though I took my medicine I was not sure if I would live long enough. Ten years later, I thank God I did not harm myself.”
Normal life
Did you know that when you are HIV-positive and under medication you can get love, have sex like any other person, get pregnant, raise children and have a family? Hiv medication brings the virus level so low that they cannot be detected. This prevents the transmission and also provides healthy life to the people living with hiv.
With the medication, people have normal life expectancy as those who are HIV negative. They live a normal healthy life and take part in everyday life activities without any difficulties.
Asli continues:
“I live a normal life. I rarely get sick. I am now married with four children. My husband is HIV negative and we do not use condom since I have been undetectable because of my medication. All my children are negative even though I gave birth while positive.”
“If you test early, you get medication and you are healthy.”
The fear of hiv is a thing of the past. People should know that they cannot get infected if the person is under medication meaning they should not discriminate them but support them like they do with people with other medical conditions.
I would say that medication has made it easy for people living with the disease. You are healthy and don’t even think about the disease. People who are at risk are those who have not been tested. They do not know whether they have it or not. If you are HIV positive it but you are not aware of it, you are likely to spread it and also become very sick. If you test early, you get medication and you are healthy.
Hivpoint provides a lot of information on living positively and living with positive friends. If you need more information you can contact Hivpoint. You can also get tested for HIV at Hivpoint. Read more from here >>
Belinda
Hivpoint´s Health Buddy 2023