HIV-Positive Dad Shares Amazing Photo With His HIV-Negative Family to Help Halt Stigma
The latest Internet sensation is shining a light on the much stigmatized HIV. (Photo: Facebook)
According to his Facebook post, 34-year-old Andrew Pulsipher has been HIV positive all his life.
He was infected prenatally, and both his parents passed away from the disease. He could have easily suffered a similar fate. Most people born with HIV and who are not treated pass away between the ages of 3 and 7; Pulsipher wasn’t treated until age 8.
Andrew Pulsipher and his family. (Photo: Facebook)
He grew up with his aunt, uncle and cousins, rarely divulging the truth about his condition to anyone, in order to have as normal a childhood as possible. Today, the virus is undetectable in Pulsipher’s blood, meaning that his medications are working brilliantly.
He also has a wife and three children ages 5, 3 and 1, all of whom are HIV negative. “I am sharing this with you because for the first time I can be completely honest with myself and others,” Pulsipher writes. “This has taken me a very long time to be comfortable with (almost 34 years!). I know HIV has a negative stigma, but that it doesn’t have to and I want to help change that. It is a treatable disease and you can live a normal life with it. I am proof of that.”
(Photo: Facebook)
Pulsipher did not immediately tell his now-wife, Victoria, about his HIV when they began dating — but when he finally did, it didn’t make a difference. “I kind of just assumed I would get it too,” Victoria said, according to 12 News. “And that was OK with me, because I loved him and I wanted to be with him.”
Luckily, that has not been an issue. The Phoenix, Ariz., pair now have three children via IVF, and will be celebrating their 10-year anniversary in October.
(Photo: Facebook)
Antonio Urbina, MD, an internist who works with HIV patients at Mount Sinai in New York says HIV is a completely different entity in recent years. “At Sinai, we have HIV patients in their 90s,” he tells Yahoo Health. “The landscape has changed tremendously. My oldest patient is 87, and HIV is like number five on his list of active health issues. The drugs are so less toxic now, too. It’s a chronic disease, but very manageable.”
Since the first drug to treat HIV was approved in 1987, some 30 more have followed — usually called antiretrovirals (ARVs), or “The Cocktail.” Generally, there are five different classes of these drugs, each used to combat the virus at various points throughout its life cycle. A person with HIV will generally take three drugs from two classes, because there is no one cure-all.
Taking three medications keeps the amount of HIV in the system to a minimum, while also helping protect a patient from the resistance that can develop with a constantly mutating virus. Doctors help patients determine which drugs are right for their specific case, but overall, treatment of HIV has come a long, long way.
As long as an HIV patient is taking their medications and practicing safe sex, transmission is very low, says Urbina. “People who are on treatment and [their bodies] can control the virus are about 96 percent less likely to transmit,” he says. “As long as its biologically suppressed, the transmission likelihood is extremely low.”
However, the stigma still exists, which is why so many people do not get tested or do not take their medications — and lives are still lost. “It just doesn’t have to happen anymore,” Urbina says. “We encounter people everyday with HIV. It’s hard to transmit the disease. And if we all get together to erase the stigma, we could virtually wipe out AIDS.”
Pulsipher says it’s time to redirect the conversation surrounding HIV and AIDS from transmission to treatment, which can ultimately help save those lives. “I want to educate people so that we can get past the ‘how you got the disease’ to ‘how you are living your life with it,’” he says.
“There are many miracles in the world, and I believe my life is one of them… I would love to be part of the change in how we talk about HIV.”
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