PEP..The facts

HIV is not a walk in the park!

After almost 30yrs of working in the HIV field, I find myself increasingly concerned that PEP is being viewed as some kind of ‘morning after’ pill.  PEP was never designed to cover a lack of self care, it was for those times when accidents happened; a condom broke; an accidental needle stick injury; sexual assault. What really worries me is that some gay men appear to think that HIV infection is a walk in the park! 

HIV is not a walk in the park. The cost, both financial and in human terms, is huge. Many of us who live with HIV will suffer side effects from our meds, damaging the quality of our lives. Some of us suffer from depression, poor self esteem and other psychological challenges. Some of us will die earlier than we ought and all of us face our own mortality every time we pick up our daily medication. HIV is not a walk in the park. I have watched as friends and clients were ravaged by this epidemic. I cried when the first HIV meds arrived too late for too many and was enraged at the inaction of government and drug companies. Like many I marched, drew chalk outlines of myself in the middle of the road blocking traffic, and chained myself to a building or two and all the time we hoped for cures or at the very least effective medication.

Ask anyone who is HIV positive if they would change their status and I promise it would take less than a heart beat for them to say yes. I would. Can you live with HIV? Yes, of course you can if you look after yourself, take your meds properly, and find people who support you. Would you want to live with HIV? Personally I would very much rather be HIV negative, but I’m not and that’s how it is.

PEP is not a morning after pill and I believe it is dangerous to believe that it is. Some appear to be prescribed PEP and do not complete the course. Should we envision our nightmare scenario we will have people who are immune to PEP, unable to keep themselves HIV free they become a new generation of HIV positive people!

Be better informed about how you protect yourself, talk about the sex you want, bring your own condoms to the bedroom – the days of being thought a slut for so doing so are well and truly passed! However, remember a leaflet is not information until you pick it up, read it and understand it; a condom isn’t safer sex until you know how to use one and how to negotiate its use!

HIV is not a walk in the park and too many of my community are not thinking at all.

Sam de Croy
December 20, 2011

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Published: 6-Jan-2012: (1008)