The Graying of AIDS

Stories From An Aging Pandemic

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 Age 50-54

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Phumzile, age 52 / Johannesburg, South Africa

June 5, 2018 by admin

    We need to remember that HIV is a justice issue. If we don’t deal with the structural injustices, people will continue being vulnerable to HIV and AIDS. The religious community has a responsibility to spread positive messages and if we still have negative messages within our religious contexts, I believe that those messages […]

Categories: Africa, Age 50-54, Female • Tags: advocacy, anger, arthritis, body image, caregiving, Caring for Older Adults, children/parenthood, dating, death/dying, depression, diabetes, dignity/respect, doctor/patient relationship, employment/retirement, exercise/fitness, faith/spirituality, family, finances, helping others, HIV/AIDS education, human rights, intergenerational, justice, life experience/age as an asset, married/life partner(s), menopause, positive outlook, pre/post-test counseling, sex/sexuality, side effects, South Africa, stigma, stress, support, treatement access, weight, Women & Girls

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Ron, age 50 / District of Columbia, USA

December 2, 2017 by admin

      I was a closeted gay man working in international development. I had been a Peace Corps volunteer and was going to school for public health, but taking short contracts to pay for school. I was living and working in Mali, in West Africa. This was the year 1994. I needed to have […]

Categories: Age 50-54, Male, North America • Tags: ACTIVISM, advocacy, clinical trials, co-morbidities, death/dying, employment/retirement, faith/spirituality, family, finances, gratitude, grief/loss, Healthcare access, intergenerational, Kaposi sarcoma, long-range thinking, long-term survivors, Mali, meditation, NGOs, opportunistic infections, positive outlook, pre/post-test counseling, privilege, stigma, support, treatment access, United States, working in HIV/AIDS community

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Susan, age 54 / New York, USA

June 19, 2017 by admin

      I guess I don’t even think about it too much anymore. In the first few years? Like, almost 24/7, it was something that was on my mind: am I gonna be around for my kids? I didn’t even think about grandkids at that time. And I always worried that my daughter would […]

Categories: Age 50-54, Female, North America • Tags: advocacy, anger, cancer, caregiving, CD4 count, children/parenthood, death/dying, disclosure, employment/retirement, family, grandchildren, helping others, HIV/AIDS education, intergenerational, isolation, life experience/age as an asset, married/life partner(s), mother-to-child transmission, nutrition, positive outlook, stress, stroke, support, United States, Women & Girls, working in HIV/AIDS community

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Nomampondo, age 52 / Johannesburg, South Africa

December 2, 2016 by admin

    At least be there for the mothers! I always tell my daughter that she saw me struggling in front of her, bringing them up as a single parent. She has to be there for their mother–  for her kids as well. We were the faces of AIDS in the beginning, during those difficult […]

Categories: Africa, Age 50-54, Female • Tags: advocacy, ageism, caregiving, confidentiality, death/dying, disclosure, doctor/patient relationship, employment discrimination, family, guilt, memory/brain health, Neuropathy, night sweats, polypharmacy, shingles, side effects, South Africa, stigma, TB, treatment access

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Loon, age 50, / Manipur, India

December 2, 2016 by admin

  From 1983 to 1997, I am fully on heroin in between lots of rehab and lots of jail and lots of anything. From 1997 to about five, six, seven years, I’m totally on abstinence. After that, I was thinking to myself, total abstinence is like sitting all the time – like this… Sometimes I want […]

Categories: Age 50-54, Asia-Pacific, Male • Tags: disclosure, India, jail/incarceration, stigma, substance use/recovery

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Olive, age 53/ Saint Catherine, Jamaica

December 1, 2016 by admin

I actually don’t do “My Story.” I don’t do testimonies. People like other people’s business, so it’s not what I do. It’s about the issues. The challenges of really living and coping, and serving, and supporting, and peer needs and so on. Yeah.  It’s fine what we are going to be doing, in that it […]

Categories: Age 50-54, Female, North America • Tags: celibacy, dating, disclosure, doctor/patient relationship, employment/retirement, faith/spirituality, family, helping others, HIV/AIDS community dynamics, HIV/AIDS education, intergenerational, Jamaica, life experience/age as an asset, pre/post-test counseling, sex/sexuality, stigma, support groups, treatment a, working in HIV/AIDS community

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JP, age 52 /Namibia and Vattholma, Sweden

December 1, 2016 by admin

My partner at the time was having problems with his eyes. I had been speaking to him for some time about getting tested together. I said to him, “It’s time, now. I’m not suggesting any more – it’s time.” When he tested positive, I said, “Forget the test. Just do my CD4 count.” But they […]

Categories: Africa, Age 50-54, Europe, Male • Tags: ACTIVISM, advocacy, CD4 count, clinical trials, death/dying, faith/spirituality, kidney health, liver health, married/life partner(s), medication, Namibia, personalized treatment, side effects, Sweden, treatment access, Viral load/”undetectable”, working in HIV/AIDS community

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Tendayi, age 50/ Harare, Zimbabwe

December 1, 2016 by admin

I was a model, I ran the largest modeling agency in Zimbabwe. And I looked the part. Coming from high society, it was rare to find people of my type talking about HIV or to come out in the open to say they were HIV-positive. We have public figures, these celebrities. How come we don’t […]

Categories: Africa, Age 50-54, Female • Tags: children/parenthood, class, disclosure, family, stigma, Zimbabwe

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Betti, age 51 / Abidjan, Ivory Coast

July 14, 2016 by admin

I discovered my status after I gave birth, in 1997. I was sick and I went to see a doctor at the hospital. I asked for a checkup and they told me that I had HIV. The child was breastfed, and I didn’t know, so she got contaminated. It was already difficult for me to […]

Categories: Africa, Age 50-54, Female • Tags: children/parenthood, cost of treatment, denial, family, fatigue, grief/loss, Ivory Coast, libido, married/life partner(s), menopause, mother-to-child transmission, NGOs, positive outlook, sex/sexuality, stress, support, treatment access

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Neale, age 54, and Max, age 60 / Melbourne, Australia

November 30, 2015 by admin

Neale:     I met this man while we were conversing online. It was really a meeting of minds on a whole lot of levels. I could sense that he was very open about his status. He worked for an organization where he was identifiable as a positive man, and I was intrigued with how he […]

Categories: Age 50-54, Age 60-64, Couple, Male • Tags: Australia, dating, disclosure, fear, fear of transmission, libido, life experience/age as an asset, love, positive partners, sex/sexuality

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Gerome, age 51 / Abbotsford, Australia

December 15, 2014 by admin

I think that my story is personal, it’s unique, and it is not tragic. And, I think it’s something that is probably a little bit different from other people’s stories, because I took it more as a relief that I don’t have to fear HIV anymore. I don’t have to – there was no fear […]

Categories: Age 50-54, Asia-Pacific, Male • Tags: Australia, celibacy, dating/relationships, disclosure, faith/spirituality, family, fear of transmission, France, Healthcare access, homophobia, love, Philippines, pre/post-test counseling, Recent diagnosis, relief, serodiscordant couple, sex/sexuality, stigma, Tanzania, treatment access, Viral load/”undetectable”

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Luwiza, age 51 / Lusaka, Zambia

December 1, 2014 by admin

Despite the health personnel saying that, “You isolate her,” my sister was there for me. My mother was there. Would sleep in the same room. My sister would be next to me on the same bed, you know. And that helped a lot. Because when your close relatives neglect you: Oooh! That is the worst […]

Categories: Africa, Age 50-54, Female • Tags: ACTIVISM, advocacy, children/parenthood, cost of treatment, employment/retirement, exercise/fitness, faith/spirituality, family, grandchildren, helping others, HIV/AIDS myths, keeping busy, NGOs, stigma, support, treatment access, Zambia

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