In a clear and well argumented post (which title I borrowed) for NOMOREPOTLUCKS, Nicholas Little, an HIV outreach worker in bathhouses, bars and online chat rooms explains how stigma attached to being HIV positive puts HIV negative men at higher risk of HIV infection.
There is not much to add to the article but to emphasise the deep contradiction existing in the mind and attitude of like-to-believe HIV negative men: On the one hand, they naively expect and believe that HIV positive guys will disclose their status before sex, but on …

This is the second part of a true story told through a friend, a first person account of the life of Nhlanhla , a nurse in a Sub-Saharan country afflicted by HIV and AIDS (read part 1 here). Names, places and minor details have been changed to protect people’s privacy. It is a story of fear, stigma, discrimination but also of hope, the everyday story of a young woman whose life, on revealing to her family that she is HIV positive, spirals into hell and despair.

“A few days later I …

This is a true story told through a friend, a first person account of the life of Nhlanhla, a nurse in a Sub-Saharan country afflicted by HIV and AIDS. Names, places and minor details have been changed to protect people’s privacy. It is a story of fear, stigma, discrimination but also of hope, the everyday story of a young woman whose life, on revealing to her family that she is HIV positive, spirals into hell and despair.
“Over the year, Nhlanhla has faced many challenges in finding out she was HIV …

This piece was written in September 2006. The AIDS conference it mentionned was the one before that of 2008 where vulnerable groups where at last put under the spotlights. Names, places and minor details have been modified to protect people’s privacy.
Bedtime story
Wat, my neighbour has a new lodger, a 35-year old Thai from a village near Kantchanabury named Keaw. Keaw left his town 3 weeks ago ro come to Bangkok looking for a job. His dream job is to be a driver but he does not have the money needed …

Abstinence and faithfulness are often promoted as the only and best forms of protection against HIV infection. If the theory is true, in the real world abstinence and faithfulness have shown an impressive rate of failure. In a couple it takes two for it to work, and when single it takes an extremely powerfull mind to resist the call of nature, particularly under 30 (or more for some).
In a study published in Plos One, Keren Landman and colleagues examined the association between the number of sexual partners and HIV infection …