Positive Living: Activism revisited
It’s been 30 years since HIV first hit Australia and we lost the first member of our community to AIDS. After the initial shock, it didn’t take us long for our anger over inaction to rally us – and bureaucracy had no choice but to take notice of the shouting.
In the spring issue of Positive Living we explore the rise of HIV activism in Australia in the ‘80s and ‘90s. We hear from those who were so angry that they took the fight to the heart of Parliament and Australia’s drug approval system changed as a result.
But how do we protest and campaign today? Have we really become couch potato slacktivists or have we just harnessed new technology to suit the changed arena?
The end of HIV is in sight. But as we start to see light at the end of this tunnel, are we destined to enter a new one? Hepatitis C and HIV coinfection has been called the new epidemic. But how endemic is it really amongst positive gay men around the world? And how does having both complicate your clinical care?
We present the latest research from the International AIDS Conference in July including more reasons why treating HIV early has long term health benefits.
David Menadue also returns to Positive Living after an unpleasant brush with Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. With poignant honesty, he ponders why a cancer diagnosis today feels almost ‘respectable’ in comparison to an AIDS diagnosis in the 1980s.
Adrian Ogier is the editor of Positive Living, NAPWHA’S health, treatments and research magazine, out next week in the Star Observer.
INFO: Like us at Facebook.com/positivelivingmag
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