Twenty First Century HIV

It is nearly 30 years since HIV was first detected in the UK and yet it is still surrounded by fear and silence. For many it is something that happens to ‘other people’. Levels of ignorance around the reality of HIV and how it is transmitted, which were once decreasing, are now growing again.

There is still no cure for HIV, but treatments now enable people to live long and healthy lives. The people who have given their stories to this publication work, play, love, have children, marry, get divorced, grieve; their lives are as interesting and as complicated as anyone else’s, with the added complication of their HIV infection.

Many of the problems they report are related less to the condition than to how society reacts to it and to the obstacles that are created by the ignorance and prejudice of others.