World AIDS Day 2022
Zibiah Loakthar, our Cuimhne Coordinator writes
This 1 December 2022, World AIDs Day, people are reflecting that it is 40 years since the first case of HIV/AIDS in the UK.
There have been significant changes in understanding about HIV/AIDS and social attitudes over these last 40 years. Discrimination and misunderstanding still exist, although people today may not face the same scale of discriminatory attitudes and “myth-information” so widespread four decades ago.
These days, antiviral therapy (ART) medication can suppress the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and prevent it from developing into AIDS, a collection of illnesses caused by this virus. With the right treatment and care, today HIV can be controlled and people can live to enjoy old age. People on effective treatment today need not worry about passing the virus on to their partners.
Living longer for any of us may mean living to enjoy more opportunities. It may also mean living to face more health challenges and, with older age, an increasing chance of developing Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.
Dementia
Not everyone living with HIV/AIDS will develop any form of dementia and thanks to effective anti virals, the specific AIDS dementia complex (ADC), also known as HIV-associated dementia, is now extremely rare in Britain.
People living with dementia may find it harder to remember recent events and rather recall memories of earlier times in their lives. This may mean that a person may come to experience living in the world as it was perhaps decades ago in their lifetime: things that happened 20, 30, 40 years ago can feel confusingly like the real present.
People experiencing dementia may then find themselves reliving the past of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s where discrimination and fears around those thought to be carrying HIV was more widespread.
Sometimes, people living with dementia find it difficult to remember factual memories but may have access to emotional memories. This may mean that someone relives emotional memories of shame, anger and fear, without necessarily being able to recall and understand the cause of these memories. Strong emotional feelings may also have an impact on behaviour.
Conversely, people living with dementia may become forgetful of things they have learned about HIV in more recent years, they may lose inhibitions and express opinions connected with misinformation and attitudes of the past. Family members, friends and carers may be unexpectedly subjected to offensive name calling or hostile attitudes by a person living with dementia.
While they may be aware that dementia is affecting how people speak to them, this awareness may not take away the offensive sting of the words. It can be bewildering and painful to find ourselves unexpectedly experiencing hostility or fear from someone who may have previously shown us respect and love.
This World AIDS Day, our Irish in Britain team encourages everyone to reflect on actions we can take to challenge social stigma and discrimination shown to people in our society who may have any kind of health issue.
Global campaigning
The theme for this year’s World AIDS Day is “Equalize” addressing the inequalities that exist around the world between people’s access to HIV testing and treatment and achieving equity to end HIV.
We can promote awareness of HIV/AIDS through conversations with people. Designed by Visual AIDS Artists, red ribbons have been worn over the past 30 years to promote AIDS awareness, becoming a well-known symbol when 100,000 were given out at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium in 1992.
We can also help raise awareness of organisations offering support. For instance, the Terrence Higgins Trust offers a helpline support, a hardship fund, counselling, work support, peer-to-peer support IT also campaigns for change and an end to discrimination, and works towards ending new cases of HIV.