Over the past few months, the Positively Alive Podcast guests ranged from policymakers to professionals, activists, and influencers who constantly fight against HIV, AIDS, and stigma. They have taken us on an extraordinary journey from the early days of HIV and AIDS to the progress that we have made to this date. Despite the success obtained toward ending the HIV epidemic, our fight is not over. Now, more than ever, when we are so close to finding a cure, we need all the funding and the support ...
Dec 16, 2019•12 min
The thought of “This can’t happen to me” is still prevalent in many HIV Negative people’s minds. But as we all learned over the many decades that this virus has been present in the world, HIV does not discriminate. Even if someone doesn’t fit the typical high-risk profile, they can still end up with HIV and AIDS - and this is the case of Jennifer, a 45-years-old mom. In today’s episode, I discuss with Jennifer how her life changed from the moment she found out she is HIV positive. She also puts ...
Dec 09, 2019•40 min
Dealing with the news of being HIV positive is hard for every individual, and it is even harder to live with HIV when you don’t fully and honestly disclose your status so that you can find support and encouragement from the people around you – both HIV positive and negative. In today’s episode, I talk with Patrick about the benefits you have when you publicly admit that you are HIV positive, and about some of the places where you can find the support you need. Patrick Reyntiens received his HIV ...
Dec 02, 2019•34 min
Maggie De Block is the Minister of Social Affairs and Health since 2014. Under her mandate, a lot of progress has been made regarding HIV and AIDS. Belgium is one of the countries that understood – and still does - the needs of HIV patients and the problems they are facing, such as stigma and discrimination or having access to treatment. Therefore, the political authorities decided to be their voice and over the past 5 years, they made it possible for HIV positive individuals to get immediate ac...
Dec 01, 2019•28 min
Over the last 10 years, people have been looking for HIV’s hiding place. Mainly what they did was they tried to find the virus in a certain organ and in a certain cell, and quantify that. But, as the virus evolves before you start the antiretroviral therapy, the organs in the body are infected with a slightly different virus, so a new approach had to be looked at, in order to find the viral reservoir. In this episode, Professor Vandekerckhove shares his laboratory’s latest discovery – the locati...
Nov 25, 2019•31 min
Living with HIV now has changed a lot compared to 30 years ago; the scientists have made major breakthroughs and the treatment is really effective now in suppressing the viral load, making people undetectable and untransmittable and helping them live a normal life. Also, the access to information about HIV and AIDS has improved considerably but still, the majority of the concerns and the questions asked are the same as 25 – 30 years ago. In today’s episode, Emma shares with us how it was to live...
Nov 18, 2019•38 min
Understanding how HIV works within cells is a key step in understanding how we're going to clear this virus. HIV is a virus and it infects cells - it's a survival strategy. The reason it's so successful is that this is a virus that is very poor at making copies of its own genetic material and it makes a lot of mistakes when it copies itself. And so what it does is it uses mutation as a way of generating a lot of diversity within its genetic makeup in order to avoid the immune system, for example...
Nov 11, 2019•30 min
We live in a world right now that is a very scary place if you’re different. We live in a world where if you are LGBTQ or if you are living with HIV, the world hates you. We need to figure out ways to overcome this hate and discrimination. For Paul and everybody who’s fighting to end the HIV epidemic, part of the challenge right now is to reach the communities that they haven’t been able to reach and to convince the health departments and community-based organizations to give them a seat at the ...
Nov 04, 2019•24 min
Theoretically, if you access all the people who are infected with HIV and put them on therapy to get the viral load below detectable levels, and get those individuals who are at high risk and put them on PREP, you could end the epidemic right now. But what are the downfalls of this hypothesis? In today’s episode, we are going to find out the answer to this question, because my guest is no one other than Dr. Anthony Fauci who takes us back to the beginnings of HIV in the United States and also sh...
Oct 28, 2019•48 min
It is an unfortunate truth for the continent, but the majority of HIV infected people reside in Africa. Furthermore, as 54% reside in eastern and southern Africa, it raises the question of what is being done about HIV awareness in that part of the world. During Mark's research into what this disease was that has killed his brother, he came to understand that there were still significant barriers in raising awareness about HIV and AIDS. In today’s episode, I discuss with Mark about the lack of pa...
Oct 21, 2019•40 min
Cyber infidelity has become very popular these days. People go online, not with the intention of cheating on their partner but because they discover a part of themselves that they never knew they had. By chatting online, individuals rapidly get the impression that they know the person they’re talking to and trust them, and when it comes to meeting face to face, they let down their guard and it’s more likely to have unprotected sex. On today’s episode, Marlene and I have an interesting talk about...
Oct 14, 2019•34 min
South Africa became the first jurisdiction in the world to protect the LGBT community. Right now, around 50% of the population of South Africa thinks that homosexuality should be accepted and even a bigger proportion, accept and believe that it should be protected by the constitution. On today’s episode, I have an interesting discussion with Judge Cameron, one of the few leaders that had the courage to step up and admit publicly that he is a gay man, living with HIV and who, through his efforts ...
Oct 07, 2019•31 min
The greatest enemies to HIV campaigns are the communities. Folks like to keep people with HIV stigmatized and at risk because they think it’s the safest thing to do. They think it’s safer to put the separation between HIV positive and HIV negative people because then you won’t have any transmissions. We know that the sense of community and the sense of connectedness is essential to address mental health issues, to help people get engaged in care, to find the services that they need, because so m...
Sep 30, 2019•48 min
Disclosing your status is something very personal but the best way of controlling HIV is to be open about it and to encourage people to take effective treatment. By sharing your story you give hope to others in your situation and at the same time, it’s such a liberation to be able to free yourself of that burden. A lot of progress has been made with HIV and AIDS over the past 30-40 years but we still have to deal with discrimination and stigma and we are still years away from eradicating this vi...
Sep 23, 2019•37 min
One of the biggest problems today, with being an HIV positive person is not the actual virus, but the stigma that surrounds it. People in some population groups avoid getting tested because they are afraid of being exposed, stigmatized and pointed fingers at. Stigma is also one of the drivers for mental health issues like depression and anxiety. Dr. Alison Rodger believes that destigmatizing HIV is one of the most important issues that need to be tackled by scientists and people all over the wor...
Sep 16, 2019•25 min
Looking back at the early stages of HIV and AIDS, there is no doubt that enormous progress has been made. HIV is not a death sentence anymore and people living with HIV can live a similar life to people who don't have HIV. Despite its progress, experts are warning that there is a danger of backsliding, due to what they call, “Complacency” and “an overemphasis on treatment at the expense of prevention.” On today’s episode , my guest, Peter Piot, discusses the reality of HIV and what the future br...
Sep 09, 2019•36 min
