MEXICO CITY (NNPA) – Although great strides have been made in HIV education and awareness since the pandemic was detected more than 25 years ago, people living with HIV and AIDS around the globe still live in fear of the societal stigma and serious concerns over the side effects of their drugs, some of the world’s leading physicians said during the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.
These trends, according to the physicians affiliated with the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (IAPAC), were highlighted in a groundbreaking AIDS Treatment for Life International Survey (ATLIS). It polled nearly 3,000 HIV-positive people from 18 countries, including Brazil, France, Japan, South Africa, and the United States.
The study highlights some of the major factors why HIV and AIDS continue to claim the lives of more than 2 million people worldwide each year and why AIDS has hit African-Americans harder than other group.
Eighty-three percent of those polled are concerned about exposing their status because of social discrimination and stigma. HIV patients, according to the study, are also concerned about the loss of family and friends (41 percent), their ability to establish future relationships (37 percent), losing their job (36 percent) and their personal reputation (36 percent).
The study results showed that 26 percent of the respondents did not receive treatment because they believe the antiretroviral therapy (ART) causes too many side effects. Fifty-eight percent of the respondents worried that the medication would cause face or body shape changes, 54 percent were concerned about gastrointestinal problems, 54 percent were concerned about fatigue and anemia and 54 percent were concerned about liver disease.
“When the HIV and AIDS pandemic began in the early 1980s, the overarching goal of education was to give people hope and the goal of treatment was to prolong life,” said Jose’ Zuniga, president/CEO of IAPAC. “Despite the incredible strides we have made, what this study shows is that some people are rejecting life-saving treatments because they fear the side effects of the medications that could potentially save their lives, while others on treatment have unnecessarily resigned themselves to live with side effects and poor tolerability in a time when less toxic treatment options are available. Patients can and should now expect more from their HIV treatment.”
Keith Green, 31, an African-American from Chicago’s South Side, who acquired the HIV virus when he was 17, said he is not surprised by the study’s findings. In fact, the stigma of being HIV positive forced him to reject his medication for eight years.
“It nearly cost my life,” said Green, who is a writer and poet. “In 2002, I was diagnosed with MAC [mycobacterium avium complex, a group of genetically-related bacteria] and was given six months to a year to live. It is the ignorance piece. I was conscious that I did not want to live with the stigma associated with the virus.”
Green, who is pursuing a master’s degree in social work at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said he realized for the first time while attending the international AIDS conference in Mexico City that he had a lot of emotions about HIV.
‘‘In spite of my HIV status and because of my sexual orientation, my life has value,” Green said. “I was on my way out. I was ready to go, but things began to turn around. It wasn’t until I got here that I became really angry. I am angry because although I now value my life, I realize from the numbers in the data that my country does not value my life, and my own people don’t value my life. …We are throwing these numbers out there, but we are not talking about why and how Black people are dying from a totally preventable disease.”