Better Not To Get HIV In America, Ctd

In contrast with the US, some good news out of Canada:

Once labelled absurd, the idea of mass testing of adults for HIV and AIDS is now part of the routine in British Columbia, proving the province is showing the world how to control and defeat the cruel disease, says the doctor leading the program. The B.C. government announced Monday it will become the first jurisdiction in Canada to introduce guidelines for health-care providers to encourage all adult British Columbians to get tested for HIV.

A Canadian reader just got some personal news:

I was told this April 25 by my GP that I had tested positive for HIV.

On April 29 I had my first appointment at the infectious diseases clinic; my doctor is medical director of the county-level Infection Prevention and Control. That day I also had bloodwork and a baseline chest x-ray. On May 2 I had my second appointment with the ID doctor. He had my T-cell count but was a little upset that the viral load readings were not back yet. My next appointment is June 3, by which time I’ll have been vaccinated for pneumonia and Hepatitis B. I’ll also have been tested for tuberculosis.

Today I applied for the provincial drug program that will help pay for the inevitable cocktail it appears I’ll be on this summer. There’s an income-based deductable, for me it’s about $150 a month.

I am ashamed that I have the virus, and I feel like I’m adrift in a dark strange river, loosened from humanity. I cannot imagine how I’ll tell family and friends when it’s time. But I am being cared for. I will not lose everything I have in order to stay alive as long as science will allow. Society and state are acting with compassion and alacrity and foresight.

I am positive.

P.S. Your accounts of treatment and life with HIV pretty much helped me avoid a freakout a couple weeks ago.