We are gathering in a moment of tremendous challenges and opportunities. We have developed biomedical tools to prevent HIV transmission and support the wellbeing of over 38 million individuals living with HIV, yet a truly healthy world eludes us. Stigma, discrimination, preventable deaths, and inequitable access to resources and health care persist. Human rights that have progressed in some places are under attack in others. Across the U.S., and perhaps the world, we are more connected yet more lonely than ever before. Our greatest achievements in evidence-based science are undermined by misunderstandings and deliberate disinformation.
While many young people in the U.S. have never heard of HIV, and many of their parents think “AIDS is over,” the internet offers newly diagnosed people a firehose of information at the expense of their privacy. Meanwhile, their elders — long-term and lifetime survivors — bear the weight of trauma, gratitude, and persistence in a world unprepared to meet the needs of people aging with HIV.
The challenges we face call for creativity, collaboration, and courage. Please join 42-year HIV survivor Rebecca Denison — Bay Area writer, founder of WORLD, co-founder of ICW, and clinical research participant since 1985 — as she reflects on lessons from the past, challenges in the present, and opportunities for the future.