Oh, and since I moved instances, I need to repost this toot when I "came out" with being HIV+. I think it is informative for a lot of people...

I've been thinking about this for quite a long time and have decided that if we want things to change, people like us have to be more visible. And no, this time, I am *not* talking about being a trans person.

No. This time I am talking about those of us who are HIV+. We need to be visible, so that people who don't know much about this subject and who are fed wrong "information" know that we are living a normal life, that we are just normal people.

We are not even sick.

We just happen to have the RNA of a virus built into our DNA, i.e., the virus is part of us. The more I think about it, the more it feels weird to talk about "a virus", because: it is me who produces that virus, and that virus is now an integral part of me, of my body. My DNA contains now the RNA of that "virus".

The only problem is that my body produces too much of this virus and if this production is not kept under control, it can just overwhelm my whole system.

It is the same with a lot of other bacteria and viruses we have in our body: if they are not kept in check one of them will overwhelm our system and kill us. The balance between the viruses, the bacteria and the fungi that are part of our body is key to our survival.

Thus, I have to take one pill every day!

And no, I don't have to take it exactly at the same time. There is a window of 18 hours within which I should take that pill. It is an expensive pill. But with that pill I can just live a normal life. I could - if I wanted - even have unprotected sexual intercourse without fear of infecting anyone ... as long as my virus-count is below 50/ml. This count is regularly checked (quarterly) including the CD4-cell count, which should be >200/µl, preferably >400/µl. (On this, please check out "U=U")

My counts are about <25/ml (virus) and >500/µl CD4-cell (~29% relative), on average, so, yeah, everything fine (and all the other blood-work results are, I quote: "amazingly excellent").

So, yeah, we are here. There are about 90-95,000 people with HIV+ in Germany, and about 38-40 million worldwide.

Yes, the pill is very expensive here in Germany but that's because we subsidize the same pill in poorer countries. We pay 30 EUR/pill here, and it costs about 1 EUR in India or Africa (production is about 0.2 EUR it seems). (NOTE: Because we have mandatory health insurance in Germany, the pill and the quarterly checks are 100% paid by my health insurance.)

But coming back: yes, I am HIV+, and I've been that for about 10-12 years, of which I've known about it only since 2019 when I was brought into hospital with acute pneumonia. I survived it also thanks to the amazing people at "München Klinik Schwabing".

Today, I live a normal life - including a very good sex-life.

But ... unfortunately it seems to have been a "normal" thing especially amongst trans people to contract HIV. Because we didn't know what/who we were and thus tried to figure it out and sometimes made some really stupid mistakes. I hope future trans people won't have to make this same mistake, won't have to endure what we endured, won't have to take one pill every day just to have a normal life.

And no, we are not infectious. As long as our virus count is below 50/ml, we are not infectious at all. This is proven science and also accepted science by all the experts on this topic, including WHO (again, check out "U=U" on the Internet).

I will probably have to live with this RNA being part of my DNA until I die because so far we don't know how to get it out or how to put it dormant. Maybe, one day, we will but not today.

And as of today I have the Red Ribbon on my profile to indicate that I am HIV+.

We are here to stay until the problem has been solved. We should not hide - we should be visible.

NB: it usually takes about 5-10 years from the initial infection with HIV until any AID-Syndrome, i.e. until one gets really sick... please check out details on Wikipedia...

Originally posted August 25, 2023 (Updated Nov 24, 2023)

Edit: there is now a treatment using injections, which has proven itself in clinical trials to be 100% effective in *preventing* HIV infection, if taken twice a year (once every six months). It is the closest we have to a vaccine to protect from infections. It is equally effective in suppressing HIV in already infected people. So,I am now hoping to switch to these injections in a few years.

#HIV #Trans #AIDS