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HIVArrow
Aged 46-55
Interview 19  

Interview 19

Age at Interview: 48
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 29
Background: A 48 year old gay man who lives in a small village in the UK. He was diagnosed in 1986.
Brief outline:Although medically retired, he is very active and works voluntarily. He is currently on lopinavir, 3TC, abacavir, ddI and tenofovir, with 1700 viral copies. Side-effects have included lipodystrophy.

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Male
Discrimination against HIV positive people can, and should, be challenged.

 



I had an endoscopy, was another procedure I had a couple of years ago, and I was the second in line, 10 o'clock was my, was my slot. They got me on the table, anaesthetised me and you could see the doc looking at my notes. You know calling the sister over with his eyes, saying you know are you aware he's positive? And he said to me, 'Mr [name] are you HIV positive?' And I said, 'Very much so. Must have been about what ten, twelve years I've been positive.' And he said, 'We can't treat you', and I said, 'Why not?' 'Well you have to go at the end of the list', and I said, 'Why?' and he couldn't give me an answer. But he uses the stock phrase that all professionals in the medical field use, guidelines. 'Sorry the guidelines.' To which my reply would be, 'What guidelines? Whose guidelines? When were they written? When were they last updated? Where's a copy of them?' to which he couldn't answer. So I went back at the end and the hospital wrote me a nice letter saying that, how sorry they were that because I was immune compromised, they wanted to make sure the machine was suitably clean so I didn't pick up an infection. To which I wrote back and said are you telling me you're putting patients at risk because you don't clean the equipment properly?
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