HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day 2019

[Jim Allen]

On June 5, 1981, MMWR published a report of five cases of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) among previously healthy young men in Los Angeles . All of the men were described as “homosexuals”; two had died

June 5th, 2019, its HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day 2019, this year’s theme is “Empowered to Thrive.”

https://www.poz.com/article/hiv-longterm-survivors-awareness-day-2019
June 5, 2019 • By Caroline Tien

Wednesday, June 5, marks HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day (HLTSAD) 2019. Created in 2013 by Tez Anderson and the Let’s Kick ASS—AIDS Survivor Syndrome—advocacy group, the day recognizes and celebrates the bravery and fortitude of the estimated 300,000 Americans who have been living with the virus for 25 years or more (in other words, about 25% of the 1.2 million Americans living with HIV). It’s also a chance to highlight the unique challenges facing this population.

“We aim to catalyze a national conversation on optimizing the quality of life for women and men HIV long-term survivors,” writes Anderson in an HLTSAD announcement. “It is time to prioritize and address HIV care focused on well-being and healthy aging with HIV. We do that by spotlighting unique needs and issues confronting survivors today.”

For example, he points out, long-term survivors take an average of nine different meds each day. Many take 15 or more, which is a challenge to manage. What’s more, nearly half of long-term survivors are living with a disability.

Why mark HLTSAD on June 5? It’s the publication date of the first report documenting what became known as HIV/AIDS—a 1981 article in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Much has changed in the nearly four decades since then. But despite the advances made in treatment and prevention, the epidemic is not over, and people continue to age with the virus. That’s why Anderson chose “Empowered to Thrive” as this year’s theme. (Anderson and other long-term survivors were profiled on NBC’s Today; you can watch that video at the top of this article.)

HLTSAD networking and wellness events (including raffles, art exhibitions, movie screenings and meditation sessions) are scheduled in Miami, New York and other cities. For more, search #hltsad and #empowered2thrive on social media and visit the HLTSAD Facebook page here.

[leatherman]

the estimated 300,000 Americans who have been living with the virus for 25 years or more (in other words, about 25% of the 1.2 million Americans living with HIV)

wonder where this data comes from? Five or six years ago (about when Tez started Let’s Kick ASS) people were still using 50K as the estimated amount.

It's been interesting that here in the Carolinas, most of the LTSes that I have met are all originally from New York. Of course, the epidemic is "newer" in the South than in San Fran or NYC so there just aren't very many people who were living with HIV in the early to mid 80s in these states (not to mention that poor access to health care and discrimination caused a lot of deaths in those early years); and many of those New Yorkers have moved back home to the South (often because they were very ill at one point and came home to family, or because of the poverty of living with HIV pushed them into moving back "home").

Bravo to all my Long Term Survivor friends. Though we never expected we'd be getting this old, it's sure better than the terrible outcome that was predicted for us