january 20 - 26 | 2016
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inside page 7
circulating in wangaratta, myrtleford, bright, mt beauty, beechworth, yackandandah, rutherglen, chiltern and districts
Sharing awareness By KYLIE WILSON
DRIVEN:
Cath Smith is passionate about both her local community and raising awareness of HIV/AIDS. PHOTO: Alex Craig
GARDENING WITH
JIM
RSPCA
WITH
SCOUT
FILM
WINE TALK WITH
THE H8FUL
EIGHT
ANITA
A Christmas worth saving for.
ON an ordinary autumn day in 2008, Mt Beauty woman Cath Smith’s life was changed forever. Diagnosed with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), after being screened after a routine blood bank donation, she immediately assumed she was going to die. “After being told that I wasn’t going to die, because the treatments were allowing people to live as long as people without HIV, I then had my first experience of HIV related stigma, and I was the perpetrator,” Ms Smith said. “I envisaged what people looked like on treatment based on the early days of the epidemic, where they were lucky to survive the side effects of the medications.” She has devoted much of her time since to becoming what she describes as a “stigma warrior”, raising awareness about the condition and trying to remove the stigma of HIV in the community. She contracted HIV after unprotected sex with her boyfriend at the time. “HIV does not choose to infect someone; it does not have a conscience,” she said. “Anyone can contract it, all it takes is exposure during an at risk activity. “There’s people out there who think I chose to contract it. “No one can say that they are HIV negative unless they have been tested, and even then, they may need to be tested again, as HIV has a window period. “People who know their status can then act accordingly by protecting themselves from contracting HIV through the use of condoms or by commencing treatment if they are HIV positive so that they can achieve an undetectable viral load.” continued page |
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