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HIV

People's stories

Aged 46-55

Interview 38

Interview 38

Age at Interview: 46
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 27
Background: A 46 year old gay man who lives in a small village in the midlands. He was diagnosed in the early days of the epidemic.

Brief outline:Although he has developed a lot of resistance to anti-HIV drugs, he is currently doing well on T20, TMC114 (as part of a trial), FTC, tenofovir and abacavir, and has an undetectable viral load.

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Some of his neighbours in a small English village are still ignorant about HIV.
Print Well I live, I live in a, I live in a small village and with small village mentality. Even though there is a fair few gay people in the village, predominantly lesbians. I've lived there for 20 years it's a… I know all my neighbours they know my sexuality, it's not a problem, they know the work I do. But [sighs] I don't know how some of the less well informed would react if they found out that somebody was HIV in the village. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I'm not aware of any others that actually live in the village. And although it's now in the commuter belt of [city] and house prices have rocketed, so we've got a lot of new people coming into the village, the true village people are still, as I would say, require enlightenment about HIV. And they'll have the old stereotypes and… and fears... just as in the general population. You know that HIV is a highly infectious disease, you can get it from sharing cups and things, we still have all that sort of crap even though we're 20 years on, and we know that's not the way it transmits.

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