Notice: Remember that HIV is still here | Opinion

When you think of the word HIV, what comes to you in the mind? ACT UP in the 90s? Leather vests and pink triangles? Granular protest pictures and political funerals? You would be right, in a way. It's the story of the movement surrounding HIV, at least in part. But do you also imagine today, daily scenes of prescriptions and management of symptoms? Because that's it too. Unlike these past memories, HIV / AIDS is not a problem of the past, but a persistent problem with widespread ramifications – even if one moves away from it, one might feel it.

This summer, during my internship, I worked a lot with POZ magazine. Founded in 1994, the publication covers "Life, Health and HIV" and includes profiles, features, treatment news and more. At first, people still did not understand how to treat HIV. The magazine was and still is a community resource and space for advocacy.

Recently, we published an article by Mark S. King "The Truth About The 7,000" that brought to light the 7,000 annual deaths of those who "die from causes directly attributable to the virus each year in the United States ". The reaction of the public has been enormous, generating thanks and pbadionate criticism. For someone like me, who had entered the company as a trainee, the wave of interaction was a learning point. We publish chronicles on the regular, and this is what sparked 2.3K likes on Facebook. This is perhaps what intrigued our readers.

Perhaps because, as King has mentioned in his article, the concept of HIV has recently been the subject of a makeover, for example, but this is not the case. is not without reason. In the media, at least, and in popular culture, we know that it is now possible to live long and healthy while living with HIV. PrEP also helps protect yourself before contracting the virus. Of course, these types of help are not available for everyone. But they are made more visible. King's attack at the root of the quality problem in his blog, as well as the notion that mental health, socio-economic status, stigma and many other factors can all contribute to the decision to stop taking drugs

inner perspective, there is also another aspect of this issue. People my age – people who were not even alive when the first wave of HIV devastated the nation – may not even remember that HIV is a serious disease that still exists. From my own experience on the web corners, jokes about youth aids are rarely encountered with more than a few glances aside. This is the kind of edgy humor that does not usually elicit a lot of laughs, but is an expected part of the Internet margins. Maybe that's because it seems like a distant thing. The reactions "too late" of mine, too early "might not come to mind. Instead, it seems that HIV is exposure to Whitney with posters from the 90's. It's Keith Haring's art on T-shirts. This is the past – except that it is not.

In 2016, UNAIDS says, 36.7 million people were living with HIV worldwide, with 1.8 million people newly infected with HIV. And, to bring King's point home, people are still dying. For those of us who are too young to remember the midst of the American crisis (or who were not yet born), HIV and AIDS may seem like something old.

For some, this might even seem like something you can not be over, or something you can not get because of who you are. It was the perception, it seems, among many people at the beginning. They thought that children could not get it, or women, or whites. Nothing could be further from the truth. HIV, unlike some people, does not discriminate, so it is often said.

HIV is still something that is being treated by millions of people every day. This can affect anyone, and it is always the case. Of course, anti-HIV activism is often considered a museum artifact by some. But, through my work at POZ and my time here, I've been immersed in what is truly a living culture of advocating for people living with HIV, full of art and activism and of need. Yes, even in a world where treatment has been dramatically improved for many – because even though it is true, there is still no cure.

One of the first days of my internship, I was talking to my colleague at the conference room of our eighth floor office building. We were discussing the magazine's debut, including what it was like to work here when the prognosis for HIV was not so rosy. He spoke to me about one of their covers, the one that I had interviews in the archives, a dark, dark background around a shroud of white and a face of black and white. ;man. His eyes were closed. The man, Stephen Gendin, who had written for the magazine, was dead. Someone was rushed to the morgue to take his picture. They put on the cover, one of four tributes that flow to his life and his death. Wow, I remember thinking It was a different time. Maybe I was trying to convince myself.

Cameron Gorman is a columnist of opinion. Access him at [email protected]