[Viva] HIV/AIDS series: Island woman's life marked by stigma - News - Times Colonist

Thu Sep 5 07:43:19 PDT 2013

Anne: she agreed! lol

On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 11:40 PM, anne bonner <thewoodbuffalo at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi Char!  Why disagree with Denise?  Just curious.
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 8:13 PM, Romari <romariundi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> great idea  good exposure but we should handle it well and not simply out
>> of disgust :)
>>
>> Romari
>>
>> On Sep 4, 2013, at 6:53 PM, CHARLENE ANDERSON <pickles4 at shaw.ca> wrote:
>>
>> > I totally agree with Denise on this one.
>> > Char
>> >
>> > ----- Original Message -----
>> > From: "Denise Becker" <dbecker106 at gmail.com>
>> > To: "viva" <viva at lists.resist.ca>
>> > Sent: Wednesday, September 4, 2013 8:57:01 AM
>> > Subject: Re: [Viva] HIV/AIDS series: Island woman's life marked by
>> stigma - News - Times Colonist
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > The executive may want to consider writing this reply if there is no
>> objection from anyone.  It would be good to have it come from ViVA and get
>> our name out there as a group of positive women who can be contacted for an
>> interview.
>> > D
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 8:18 AM, anne bonner < thewoodbuffalo at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Um er let me think about it.  When did this article come out?  Does it
>> have to be written right away?  I'm not so good at these things...
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 11:31 AM, Romari < romariundi at gmail.com >
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > That is a good idea Anne … are you up for it?
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Aug 27, 2013, at 10:37 AM, anne bonner < thewoodbuffalo at gmail.com >
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Also agreed.  Does anyone feel like writing a letter to the editor?
>>  That would be a great venue to clear this issue up.     Because if they
>> are going to continue writing articles about HIV they need to learn some
>> sensitivity about the issue.
>> >
>> > Anne
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 10:50 AM, Margarite Sanchez <
>> margaritesanchez at gmail.com > wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Agreed! It is the old puritanical ethics showing ... and that kind of
>> language implies that some people with HIV are guilty and others are
>> innocent.  M
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 6:49 AM, Romari < romariundi at gmail.com > wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Thank you Denise for bringing this article to my attention.
>> >
>> >
>> > I don't get the Times Colonist but after reading this, I recalled
>> someone mentioned to me that they too had read something about HIV in the
>> aboriginal community recently. I have now done a search and there has been
>> a whole series on HIV in the Times Colonist! It is great that they are
>> giving it this much attention and from several angles.
>> >
>> >
>> > However, I agree with your point about promiscuity! So very irritating
>> that they can write these articles to inform people and hope to reduce
>> stigma and yet mess up there!
>> >
>> >
>> > Romari
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Aug 25, 2013, at 8:15 PM, Denise Becker < dbecker106 at gmail.com >
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > While I think this is a great article, I do not like this paragraph:
>> >
>> > The fair-haired, fit-looking woman is a divorced mother with two
>> healthy children, holds a good job and owns her home. She is a heterosexual
>> woman who had none of traditional risk factors for HIV, such as
>> intravenous-drug use or promiscuity, when she was diagnosed.
>> >
>> > Since when has "promiscuity" been one of the traditional risk factors
>> for a heterosexual woman?  I would think that a traditional risk factor was
>> having sex, not necessarily promiscuity!!!!
>> >
>> > Denise
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 2:32 PM, Margarite Sanchez <
>> margaritesanchez at gmail.com > wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > If you haven't come across this article yet ...
>> >
>> >
>> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> > From: Roy Parish < royparish at shaw.ca >
>> > Date: Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 9:10 AM
>> > Subject: HIV/AIDS series: Island woman's life marked by stigma - News -
>> Times Colonist
>> > To: Margarite Sanchez < margaritesanchez at gmail.com >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Hello Margi
>> > Hope all is well with you and Alvaro.
>> > Spotted this on FB and thought you, of all the friends I know, would
>> relate.
>> >  Luv
>> > R
>> > xo
>> > 29c today in Vancouver. Fantabulosa, bring it on. I bet your 'girls'
>> are thriving.
>> >
>> >
>> http://www.timescolonist.com/news/hiv-aids-series-island-woman-s-life-marked-by-stigma-1.571638
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > HIV/AIDS series: Island woman's life marked by stigma
>> >
>> > A3-0807-hiv-clr.jpg
>> > Nicole, now 30, was diagnosed with HIV at 21. Although she would like
>> to help combat the stigma attached to HIV, she keeps her illness a secret
>> from many in her life.  Photograph by: DARREN STONE, Times Colonist
>> >
>> > At age 30, Nicole could be a poster woman for good looks and good
>> health — except for one issue she feels compelled to keep secret.
>> >
>> > While her family and close friends know, she is very careful about
>> telling others that, at age 21, she was diagnosed with HIV.
>> >
>> > The fair-haired, fit-looking woman is a divorced mother with two
>> healthy children, holds a good job and owns her home. She is a heterosexual
>> woman who had none of traditional risk factors for HIV, such as
>> intravenous-drug use or promiscuity, when she was diagnosed.
>> >
>> > She’d love to let us use her last name to help lambaste the deep
>> stigmas that still exist about HIV, the lack of knowledge about how
>> controllable it is and how hard it would be for women like her to transmit
>> the virus. But as the sole support of her family and with a boss who has no
>> idea of her status, she just can’t risk it.
>> >
>> > Nicole is deeply disturbed by the ungrounded belief in easy
>> transmission that is still widespread in society. Even some close friends
>> aren’t keen on her borrowing a hairbrush, or sipping from the same glass.
>> >
>> > “Having this stigma is so anguishing,” she said. “It takes some of the
>> quality from my life.” Devastating diagnosis
>> >
>> >
>> > She has no idea whether the man who passed HIV to her had any idea he
>> was infected. She found out as a result of routine blood work about 10
>> years ago. She was so devastated her family doctor had to drive her home.
>> She was sick at the thought she might never be able to have kids or, worse,
>> faced imminent death.
>> >
>> > Nicole managed to get on with her life. She met her husband, who was
>> also HIV positive, online. Neither of their children has HIV.
>> >
>> > Now divorced, Nicole’s deepest wish is to find a partner, a father
>> figure for her children and a husband unafraid to love her. She has
>> experienced devastating setbacks on that score. She dated two men and, in
>> each case, when the time seemed right, she worked up the courage to them
>> about her status. She explained that experts in the field have assured her
>> that there is almost no chance she can transmit HIV to others. But, within
>> 24 hours, each man dropped contact with her.
>> >
>> > That made her feel “discardable,” she said.
>> >
>> > “My body has not been affected by [HIV], nor is it expected to. It’s
>> actually expected to be unaffected for the rest of my life. But my spirit
>> and my heart have been.”
>> >
>> > That’s why, she said, she wants to fight stigma around HIV. New
>> treatment, new hope
>> >
>> >
>> > The B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS also wants to get out the
>> word that taking HAART — a landmark mixture of highly active
>> anti-retroviral therapy — reduces the level of HIV in the blood and sexual
>> fluids to undetectable levels, dramatically decreasing the likelihood of
>> HIV transmission, said Kevin Hollett, the centre’s communications
>> co-ordinator.
>> >
>> > HIV transmission by heterosexual contact accounted for about 22 per
>> cent of the 238 new HIV cases in B.C. in 2012 — or about 52 new cases, down
>> from 75 in 2011.
>> >
>> > That’s far less than the 63 per cent transmitted by men having
>> unprotected sex with men, but nearly double the 12 per cent transmission
>> rate via intravenous-drug use, according to figures from the B.C. Centre
>> for Disease Control.
>> >
>> > There’s no reason for Nicole not to have a healthy sexual relationship
>> without fear of transmitting HIV, said Dr. Julio Montaner, one of the
>> world’s pre-eminent HIV/AIDS experts.
>> >
>> > Montaner, a professor of medicine at the University of B.C., said that
>> thanks to HAART — a therapy that he helped develop — Nicole’s viral load is
>> undetectable and, as such, it is not possible for her to transmit HIV to
>> others.
>> >
>> > The virus that was often death sentence when Nicole was a child is now
>> a chronic illness that can be well managed in many people.
>> >
>> > “Twenty years ago, a woman infected with HIV at age 20 would be told,
>> ‘Sorry, you have a disease that is going to kill you prematurely, you’re
>> going to have a very rocky course ahead, you are basically not going to
>> have a normal reproductive life,’ ” Montaner said.
>> >
>> > “Today, a 20-year-old woman who comes to my office for the first time
>> and has an HIV diagnosis, yes, it’s a problem, but we have a strategy. The
>> treatments are highly effective, they are simple, they are formulated into
>> one pill once a day, most of the time.”
>> >
>> > A 20-year-old woman diagnosed today with HIV and given anti-retroviral
>> drugs can expect to live in good health until the age of 73, Montaner said.
>> He’s hesitant to call it a normal life-span “because anything that requires
>> treatment, by definition, is not normal. But I usually [say] near-normal
>> longevity and a very high quality of life.”
>> >
>> > Twenty years ago, Montaner would have had to advise Nicole not to have
>> children. Now he can say, “You will be there to nurture your children and
>> you will be there to see your grandchildren.”
>> >
>> > Moreover, B.C. Women’s Hospital researchers have developed a drug
>> regimen that has prevented births of any HIV-positive babies in B.C. in the
>> last 15 years to HIV-positive mothers who underwent a full anti-retroviral
>> regime. The toll of stigma
>> >
>> >
>> > Even though Nicole has a nice life by anyone’s standards — something
>> that can’t be said of impoverished injection-drug users, for instance — the
>> HIV stigma must take a toll on her well-being, said Katrina Jensen,
>> executive director of AIDS Vancouver Island.
>> >
>> > “You can’t underestimate the impact that stigma and discrimination have
>> on someone’s health … no matter how privileged they may seem. If they’re
>> part of a group that experiences a lot of stigma, that is bad for their
>> health,” Jensen said.
>> >
>> > As a woman in her childbearing years, Nicole only recently began to
>> take medication — four pills a day. She continues to have routine blood
>> work done to monitor her T-cell counts and viral load.
>> >
>> > “Now that I’m on medication, it is likely I will have undetectable
>> viral load for the rest of my life,” she said.
>> >
>> > As her children grow up, Nicole doesn’t want them to feel there’s
>> something wrong or shameful about their family. They’re too young to
>> understand the implications of HIV. She regrets she can’t use her surname
>> to defy the stigma and help normalize HIV. She’s got a mortgage to pay,
>> kids to support, a job to do and a public image she doesn’t want to tarnish
>> by untruths. She’s not willing to be “a sacrificial lamb,” but she wants
>> people to remember her story when they hear about someone living with HIV.
>> >
>> > kdedyna at timescolonist.com A look at the numbers
>> >
>> >
>> > • Number of people in Canada living with HIV, including those with
>> AIDS, in 2011: 71,300
>> >
>> > • Number of people in Canada living with HIV, including those with
>> AIDS, in 2008: 64,000
>> >
>> > • Number of people in B.C. living with HIV in 2011: 11,700
>> >
>> > • Number of people in B.C. with AIDS in 2011: 70
>> >
>> > • Number of people on Vancouver Island living with HIV in 2012: 888
>> >
>> > • Number of new HIV infections in Canada in 2011: 3,175
>> >
>> > • Number of new HIV infections in B.C. in 2012: 238
>> >
>> > • Number of new HIV diagnoses on Vancouver Island, from 2008 to 2012:
>> 159
>> >
>> > • Rate of new HIV infections in Canada in 2011: 7.6 per 100,000 people
>> >
>> > • Rate of new HIV infections in B.C. in 2012: 5.2 per 100,000
>> >
>> > • Rate of new HIV infections on Vancouver Island, from 2008 to 2012:
>> 4.2 per 100,000
>> >
>> > • Rate of new HIV infections on Vancouver Island in 2012: 3.4 per
>> 100,000
>> >
>> > • Percentage of cases in B.C. in 2012 in which HIV transmission caused
>> by:
>> >
>> > - gay, bisexual contact: 63
>> >
>> > - heterosexual contact: 22
>> >
>> > - intravenous-drug use: 12
>> >
>> > • Annual cost of HAART anti-retroviral treatment: $15,600
>> >
>> > • Lifetime cost of HAART anti-retroviral treatment: $500,000
>> >
>> > • Number of HIV blood screens done on pregnant women in B.C. in 2011:
>> 46,910
>> >
>> > • Number of HIV-positive babies born in last 15 years to mothers who
>> underwent full anti-HIV drug therapy: 0
>> >
>> > • Annual deaths due to AIDS in B.C. in 2011: 59
>> >
>> > • Annual deaths due to AIDS in B.C. in 1996: 253
>> >
>> > • Annual deaths due to AIDS in Canada in 2009: 355
>> >
>> > • Annual deaths due to AIDS in Canada in 1995: 1,764
>> >
>> > Sources: B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Statistics Canada,
>> Vancouver Island Health Authority and B.C. Centre for Disease Control, B.C.
>> Women’s Hospital & Health Centre Foundation
>> >
>> > © Copyright 2013
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> > www.denise-becker.com Queen's Gold Jubilee Medal
>> > Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal
>> > cell: 250-870-1714 _______________________________________________
>> > Viva mailing list
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>> >
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>> > --
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>> > www.denise-becker.com Queen's Gold Jubilee Medal
>> > Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal
>> > cell: 250-870-1714
>> > _______________________________________________
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