Let's Talk About HIV?

Recently, I was asked if there is still a need for a discussion about AIDS since HIV is ‘no longer a death sentence’ and is ‘so easily manageable’. The fact that someone would ask such a question reflects the overwhelming generalized social apathy surrounding HIV/AIDS (H/A) today. It is nearing 34 years since HIV was first discovered in the U.S.; today’s youth is the 3^rd in the H/A generation. The fact that 50,000 reported new HIV infections each year in the U.S alone, adding annually to the over 34 million people worldwide surviving with H/A, is answer enough to the above query. In this modern age of perpetuated H/A-related stigma, excess of social apathy, cutting-edge treatment options, and controversial prevention strategies, the H/A discussion may be of more import now than ever. The discussion must continue in a critical manner, if for no other reason, than the hope of having an AIDS-free generation in the near future

The first decades of the H/A epidemic created a hyper-focus on specific populations, such as, men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers, and injection-drug users (IDU), which, until recently, have left most other at-risk populations marginalized, uneducated, unrepresented, and unprotected. Today’s H/A discussion must become an interactive dialogue to include women (regardless of sexual identity), transgendered individuals, ethnic minorities, substance users, and youth (ages 13-25). Inclusivity is paramount in creating a unified social effort to educate all individuals and youth from past generations, the current generation, and all future generations. After all, according to the CDC, all sexually active individuals whom are not in an honest, monogamous relationship (regardless of gender, ethnicity, or sexual identity) are at-risk for HIV infection.

Creating and sustaining an innovative social discussion regarding H/A that reaches all strata of society, especially the historically marginalized, will elicit the social change that is necessary in creating an AIDS-free generation. The discussions must transcend society in general and create interactive dialogue on an individual level regardless of stigma or fear. The CDC’s Start Talking. Stop HIV campaign is a magnificent example of creating an interactive dialogue regarding HIV using social media.

This inventive social media campaign is aimed at the MSM community; however, this campaign’s information and message can easily be applied to other marginalized communities at-risk for HIV transmission. Also, there are a number of such campaigns geared to other at-risk populations. The CDC describes the Start Talking. Stop HIV campaign’s goal, “seeks to reduce new HIV infections among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men by encouraging open discussion about a range of HIV prevention strategies and related sexual health issues between sex partners”.  Thus, even the CDC acknowledges the continued need for a critical discussion about HIV so much that they are funding a national campaign based on open, honest, and stigma-free communication as a plausible prevention strategy.

So, to answer my own query: yes, a social discussion regarding H/A is still not only relevant but is essential in inclusively and universally educating a generation that has the capability of being AIDS-free. That is monumental not only in its audacious claim but in its auspicious possibility: the containment of the HIV pandemic and suppression of AIDS through treatment, drug therapies, prevention, and the goal of having an undetectable viral load. Agreeably, it is an idyllic notion, but one can hope. Start talking, keep talking, and get others talking critically about HIV. Help stop the spread of HIV-related ignorance, stigma, and the virus itself.

It is imperative to remember the cliché that HIV does not discriminate. H/A is found in every population, strata of society, gender identity, sexual identity, ethnicity/race, religious faith in the world. Potentially, any sexually active individual with one or more sexual partner is at-risk for HIV infection. In this third generation of H/A, it is safe to say that everyone is either affected or infected by HIV or AIDS. Following the sentiment of this statement, we are one world and we are one status: 

We Are All HIV +. 

-Bryan Heitz

Risk Reduction Specialist
CCCofSN