Chronicle Of A Person Living With A Positive Status

Growing Old With HIV is a Conversation We Must Start Having....
For a long time HIV was spoken about only in the context of death fear and urgency. Many people were told directly or indirectly that life would end quickly after a positive test. That story is no longer true. 

HIV is no longer a death sentence. Because people are living longer fuller lives with the virus we now need to talk about something important getting old with HIV.

Whether or not a cure comes in our generation which I sincerely pray it does we must prepare our minds our health systems and our communities for ageing with HIV.

I have seen it with my own eyes. People who have lived with HIV for over thirty years and are still healthy strong and active. Not distant examples from abroad not oyinbo people on the internet but people I personally know through my clinic.

 They are people who work, raise families and live normal lives. Many of them look so good that if they never told you you would never guess.
One woman in particular always comes to mind. She once worked with the facility and shared her story with me. She tested positive at a time when there was no free access to ARVs.

 Treatment was scarce expensive and surrounded by fear and stigma but she is today alive, healthy and ageing with grace. Her story is proof that HIV did not stop life it, only changed the direction.

As treatment improved people stopped dying young. Viral suppression became possible. Opportunistic infections reduced. Life expectancy increased. With that progress comes a new reality people with HIV will grow old and they deserve to grow old well.

Ageing with HIV comes with its own conversations. Long term medication use. Bone health. Heart health. Mental health. Memory. Menopause. Sxxual health. Social support. These are things every ageing person deals with but HIV adds another layer that must be acknowledged not feared.

We also need to prepare emotionally. Many people living with HIV never imagined they would reach old age. Some lost friends. lovers and support systems along the way. 

Growing older can bring mixed emotions gratitude grief and sometimes loneliness. This is why community and compassionate care matter.
Most importantly we must remove the mindset that HIV is only about survival. It is now about quality of life, dignity and future planning. 

Retirement plans, relationships, ageing parents, grandchildren, dreams that still matter.
If you are living with HIV today know this, your life is not on pause. You are allowed to plan. You are allowed to hope. You are allowed to imagine yourself growing old.

And to society we must do better. Less judgement, more education. Less fear more facts. HIV has changed and our thinking must change with it.

Until a cure comes and I truly pray it does, let us prepare for long life with HIV. Because living long is no longer the exception it is becoming the norm. I've met people living with hiv for decades and still looking so well and healthy. If they can,we will too, I know the journey might not be as easy as someone without the virus but we should be able to rise above the virus and make our life enjoyable.

I also pray hiv becomes a thing of the past very soon but before then, let's keep hope alive