Positive Voices

Eight years ago Deanna was overweight and having trouble with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). Becoming pregnant was the impetus for a change in how she approached managing her health. Deanna transformed

Over the last 18 months Scott has stopped smoking and cut his drug use. He’s had to find different ways to fill the weekends. Doing that without getting bored was a struggle at first, but Scott has

“In 2000 I was in Arq (a nightclub in Sydney) dancing, it was Australia Day, and I was smoking a cigarette at five in the morning and I said ‘no more’.”Jorge has overcome a lot to become as he

"Ever since I seroconverted, I’ve had this attitude that HIV will fit my agenda, not make it the centre of my life. That might sound hypocritical because I do work in the HIV area, but I enjoy and l

Why do some of us refuse treatment? And how far will we go before we finally relent? JAMES MAY tells us his story.I guess I was always reluctant to start treatment.My thinking was shaped by my ow

I gave up my career several years ago to care for my mother. I received a carer’s pension and together with her aged pension we were able to live in a semi-comfortable manner in country NSW. Sadly,

‘Pensioner’ is such a loaded term, muses Brad Johnston, particularly when you’re an apparently healthy 38-year-old.Having spent weeks jumping through municipal hoops to prove my identity to our

When their partner’s income became assessable in 2009, many HIV positive people around the country lost their Disability Support Pension (DSP).Initially, they were entitled to use a pensioner conces

A BIT OF BACKGROUNDTreatment as prevention (TasP) describes HIV prevention methods that use antiretrovirals (ARVs) to decrease the risk of HIV transmission.1 The concept grew out of the 2011 resu

I know for a fact that my life has become more complicated as I’ve progressed into my 50s. I seem to have an ever-increasing number of comorbidities to contend with. While I may not be spending the

If I had stayed in Zimbabwe, it is likely I would have diedWhen poltical harassment and violence forced Viola to escape her home country of Zimbabwe, she had little choice but to leave her son and dau

As someone who has experienced it, Mia Dawson thought she knew what HIV stigma was all about.Before I sat down to write this, I was pretty sure I knew what I was going to talk about. I mean, most of u