Interview Section : Healthtalkonline

Full list of topics

Experiences of health care :
Getting a diagnosis
Getting health and social care
Making decisions about treatment
Taking anti-HIV drugs
Challenges of anti-HIV drugs

Looking after yourself :
Coping with mental health problems
Dealing with your thoughts
Talking about it
Becoming informed
Gaining power and strength
Spirituality and religion
Holistic health

Disclosure, discrimination and other challenges :
Secrecy and telling people
Support groups
Dealing with difficulties, finances and benefits
Work and routine
Prejudice, stigma and discrimination
Telling children and parents

Negotiating Sex :
How people became infected
Casual sexual encounters
Sex in relationships
Telling sexual partners

Looking ahead :
Living now & in the future
Illness and death
Finally, what people with HIV want you to know

Search the whole site
Search in this condition

HIV

People's stories

Aged 20-30

Interview 32

Interview 32

Age at Interview: 29
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 22
Background: A 29 year old man, single with an young child, originally from Africa.

Brief outline:He presented with significant loss of weight and a chest infection in 1998, and he was diagnosed with HIV. He has been on antiviral medication for a number of years. (Video and audio clips read by an actor.)

More about me...

To watch or read an interview clip, click on the heading that interests you. Either a video,audio recording or text will open, depending on the clip

To read what was said without video or audio, click here
To print the interview’s text, click here

Argues that some people in religions can be extreme and might try to convince you to stop HIV medication. (Read by an actor.)
Print I am a Christian and I value my religion very much. But normally for me, I don't mix religion with the… it's nothing to do with the medication. Because I know there are some ex, extreme people in my religion yeah? Some of the churches who are if you, if you start going to attend there, then they can start deceiving you that, leave your medication, they are coming to pray for you and... So that one I do, I disagree completely... I yeah, something to do with medication I don't mix with it, the religion. I can take my medication, and then I go and pray like that, I look at it two, separate. Because God says look after yourself before he can look after you. So don't surrender your medication… God created us with wisdom, the wisdom to create medicine, which is the wisdom that is coming from God.

Mail to a friend