Living with HIV: How to Beat the Stigma

You can live a long healthy life with HIV as long as you take medication and get educated about the stigma. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that HIV is a virus that weakens the immune system and alters the way the body defends itself against infection. Lack of treatment for HIV may result in the development of AIDS.

A person may have flu-like symptoms within 2–4 weeks of infection. Some individuals, however, show no signs at all, so testing is the only way to be sure. There are about 34,963 persons with HIV in North Carolina, as reported by the state's Department of Health and Human Services. Included are those who received their first diagnosis in another state.

The NCDHHS also reported that 129 persons were newly diagnosed with AIDS and 375 with HIV this year.

Southern HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

On August 20, 2022, people around the South commemorated Southern HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, an event started by the Southern AIDS Coalition in 2019 to raise awareness about HIV and break down stigmas associated with the infection in the region. Despite the fact that the HIV epidemic is worse in the South, this day is intended to bring people together to work on eliminating prejudice and increasing access to care.

How Can Conversation Help?

The stigma associated with HIV/AIDS is the main source of suffering for people with the virus. They are compelled to live in prolonged secrecy about their status as a community until they are ready to tell the world that they are HIV positive. Due to this, several organizations and individuals promote HIV prevention strategies such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) decreases the risk of HIV transmission via sexual activity by about 99 percent while injectable drug use decreases the risk by at least 74 percent when taken as directed, according to the CDC.

Since HIV is seldom discussed, and since many places could use some assistance in acquiring the resources they need, it is reasonable to assume that this will be news to many individuals.

The biggest asset to any community is a local hospital, but without support groups or anything similar, it remains an untouched subject. Being honest about having HIV/AIDS is going to be approximately three times as difficult as being open about anything else since once someone learns, ignorance sets in, and you can be ostracized or harshly condemned because the first thing that comes to mind is that you got it through sleeping around.

In fact, there are several ways people can contract HIV/AIDS besides sex. These include:

Pregnancy, delivery, or nursing may transfer HIV to a newborn. HIV prophylaxis and therapy have reduced its incidence.
Sharing needles, syringes, or other drug injecting equipment with an HIV-positive person puts you at risk for HIV.
Surprisingly, the workplace, by a contaminated needle or sharp item.
Medical field. US blood, organs, and tissues are checked rigorously. Transfusions, blood products, and organ transplants are unlikely to transmit HIV.
Food contamination and the only known cases are among infants. Contamination occurs when blood from a caregiver's mouth mixes with pre-chewed food, and an infant eats it.
Biting, spitting. Few known occurrences involved serious tissue injury and bleeding.
Deep, open-mouth kissing is uncommon, but it may transmit if both parties have sore or bleeding gums.
Tattooing or body piercing may transmit HIV if the equipment or ink contains blood.

Through constant conversation, some of these other reasons can get highlighted and allow people to know that sometimes things happen out of their control. The significance of getting tested is emphasized heavily after an HIV diagnosis. Likewise, we must encourage more participation in clinical studies from the general public.

Daily HIV Medications & Therapies

Discovering your HIV status is important since many options are available to help you stay safe. You may achieve undetectable status by taking medicine, which means you no longer have detectable virus levels in your system.

The quantity of HIV in circulation may be reduced to negligible levels with daily antiretroviral medication, as reported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Therapy reduces detectable viral loads by stopping the virus from replicating.

Much progress in HIV treatment and study has been made, maybe more than is generally understood. Therefore, on December 14, HIV Cure Research Day was established to call attention to the ongoing efforts to find a cure.