Australian Woman's Weekly report on women with HIV

A most inspiring story of 5 Australian women who are HIV+. What an immense pleasure it is to see a long and in depth report like this in Australia's main stream media. 

Apart from the women being brave enough to go public with their HIV status, but it can only aid the cause to de-stigmatise the disease.

It's not something to be embarrassed about having HIV. It's not about blame. It's about it simply being a disease that people live with in today's world.

No shame. No stigma. 

“I’d googled the symptoms, everything was pointing in the direction of HIV so I went back to my GP and insisted I have a test. She told me I was an Aussie girl, heterosexual, very low risk, not to worry. But when the clinic called and asked me to come back in urgently, in my heart I knew. My GP was almost in tears when she told me I had HIV. My first thought was ‘I don’t want to live with this’”. 

Abby put her studies on hold and moved back in with her family to focus on getting well, she researched the virus heavily and found support groups for women like her, who offered companionship, education and understanding, and with advanced treatments she has recovered well. more  

My first thought was like, "oh well I'm heading for death now", until a few minutes later when the doctor said that you take the drugs and it "stops the virus".