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

[anne bonner]

oh.  weird.  I read that totally wrong!


On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 7:43 AM, Denise Becker <dbecker106 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
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>>
>>
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>
>
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