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30 Years On
WORLD AIDS DAY 1st December, 2011.
The year : 1981
Thirty years ago this month, I was a volunteer counsellor on a telephone help-line in Newcastle Upon Tyne UK, supporting people who were confused and concerned about their sexuality – and a newly emerging health problem – that of HTLV III infection. Today, we refer to it as HIV and AIDS. Six years later, in 1987, I moved to London and worked for a number of years supporting people diagnosed with HIV and AIDS. Education about HIV infection was piecemeal at best. People were dying both of the effects of the disease and educational ignorance of the disease. Many people volunteered a lot of precious time establishing quality support systems for people who had become infected.
Every year, without fail, I have remembered, in my own way, those whom I have known and who have died, both in the UK and in several other countries. Many were acquaintances, some were good friends and some were people to whom I was very close. I will particularly be remembering those people in the early days of the disease, who subjected themselves to new trial drugs given at high dosages in order to establish safe medication levels. Many people did not survive because of the high toxicity of these drugs on their already weakened bodies – yet, at the same time, these drugs were these peoples’ only hope for potential survival.
Medications for HIV infection have greatly improved over the past 30 years, to the point that HIV is now generally regarded as a chronic medical condition. Yet we still have high levels of infection rates in the UK which some believe is due to complacency and lack of willingness to be educated.
I still give support to a few people whom I still know, who are living with HIV and AIDS, and who occasionally are traumatised by the effects of their illnesses.
On this, my own personal 30th Anniversary of my involvement with HIV, my appeal is for people to acknowledge the work of the support and educational agencies, and on the 1st December 2011 to show publicly your support by wearing a Red Ribbon.
(Go to www.nat.org.uk/ - the website of the National AIDS Trust in the United Kingdom.)
30 Years On
WORLD AIDS DAY 1st December, 2011.
The year : 1981
Thirty years ago this month, I was a volunteer counsellor on a telephone help-line in Newcastle Upon Tyne UK, supporting people who were confused and concerned about their sexuality – and a newly emerging health problem – that of HTLV III infection. Today, we refer to it as HIV and AIDS. Six years later, in 1987, I moved to London and worked for a number of years supporting people diagnosed with HIV and AIDS. Education about HIV infection was piecemeal at best. People were dying both of the effects of the disease and educational ignorance of the disease. Many people volunteered a lot of precious time establishing quality support systems for people who had become infected.
Every year, without fail, I have remembered, in my own way, those whom I have known and who have died, both in the UK and in several other countries. Many were acquaintances, some were good friends and some were people to whom I was very close. I will particularly be remembering those people in the early days of the disease, who subjected themselves to new trial drugs given at high dosages in order to establish safe medication levels. Many people did not survive because of the high toxicity of these drugs on their already weakened bodies – yet, at the same time, these drugs were these peoples’ only hope for potential survival.
Medications for HIV infection have greatly improved over the past 30 years, to the point that HIV is now generally regarded as a chronic medical condition. Yet we still have high levels of infection rates in the UK which some believe is due to complacency and lack of willingness to be educated.
I still give support to a few people whom I still know, who are living with HIV and AIDS, and who occasionally are traumatised by the effects of their illnesses.
On this, my own personal 30th Anniversary of my involvement with HIV, my appeal is for people to acknowledge the work of the support and educational agencies, and on the 1st December 2011 to show publicly your support by wearing a Red Ribbon.
(Go to www.nat.org.uk/ - the website of the National AIDS Trust in the United Kingdom.)