Living with HIV

Twenty years ago this month, it began as a ripple, one that would soon become a tidal wave. On June 5, 1981, an odd but troubling

reference appeared in a journal published by the Centers for Disease Control, describing a rare form of pneumonia afflicting five gay men.

By year's end, their ailment would be known as AIDS, a disease which would go on to claim million lives over the next decades.

Television producer Jean-Louis, the first person with AIDS in France to allow himself to be photographed for publication, 1987. Jane Evelyn Atwood's images of Jean-Louis won World Press Photo honors and were published throughout Europe.

After a three-year struggle against AIDS and its social stigmas, David Kirby could fight no longer. As his father, sister and niece stood by in anguish, the 32-year-old founder and leader of the Stafford, Ohio AIDS Foundation felt his life slipping away. David whispered, "I'm ready," took a last labored breath, then succumbed."

People with AIDS at Doctor Pape´s clinic, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 1987

Child with AIDA, Virology and Infectious Desease, Hospital Contanth, Romania, February, 1990

Romanian orphanage, 1997

AIDS orphans in their shanty school class. Kitwe, Zambia.

Florence on her way to the local Anglican Church to speak about her experiences with HIV and AIDS, Iganga, Uganda, February 2001.

A man with AIDS walks from a shower at the Beatrice Road Infectious Deseases Hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe, whwrw 90% of the patients have AIDS. September 2000

Ken Meeks, San Francisco, CA, September 1968

Aaron Laxton of St. Louis, Missouri, takes part in a demonstration in front of the White House in Washington, July 24, 2012.

Seema, 33, displays an anti-retroviral drug used to treat HIV/AIDS, inside his residence in New Delhi, May 16, 2012.

A terminally ill Thai man rests at a hospice for those dying of AIDS, at Wat Prabat Nampu Buddhist temple in Lopburi, on World AIDS day, December 1, 2009.

An HIV-infected child is seen at a red ribbon primary school known as the Green Harbour in Linfen, Shanxi province, November 28, 2008. 

A HIV-positive woman cleans her teeth after lunch at a HIV/AIDS hospice, founded by a member of the National League for Democracy party, in Yangon, February 18, 2012.

A man living with HIV covers his face to avoid being identified due to fear of discrimination at a Saudi Charity Association for AIDS Patients in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, July 19, 2010.

A nurse checks on a three-year-old patient in the HIV/AIDS ward of the Beijing YouAn Hospital, October 28, 2008. 

Shoes belonging to HIV infected children are lined up outside a room in an orphanage run by the Fuyang AIDS Orphan Salvation Association in Fuyang, Anhui province, November 27, 2009. 

A Thai transvestite suffering from AIDS pets a cat at a hospice for those dying of AIDS, at Wat Prabat Nampu Buddhist temple, in Lopburi, on World AIDS day, December 1, 2009. 

Hemophiliac protesters, all of whom contracted HIV from infected blood products, wear surgical masks as they demonstrate during an AIDS-awareness event on World AIDS Day at Beijing's south railway station, December 1, 2009. 

An HIV-infected child plays with a toy at a red ribbon primary school known as the Green Harbour in Linfen, Shanxi province, November 29, 2008. 

A dog waits by a bed with a terminally ill Thai man, at a hospice for those dying of AIDS, at Wat Prabat Nampu Buddhist temple in Lopburi, on World AIDS day, December 1, 2009. 

A HIV-infected woman receives medical treatment at a clinic held for HIV-infected patients in Funan county of Fuyang, Anhui province, November 30, 2008.

An HIV-infected child walks alone at a red ribbon primary school known as the Green Harbour in Linfen, Shanxi province, November 29, 2009

HIV infected children eat their breakfast in an orphanage run by the Fuyang AIDS Orphan Salvation Association in Fuyang, Anhui province, November 27, 2009. 

An HIV-infected patient receives medical treatment at a clinic held for HIV-infected patients in Funan county of Fuyang, Anhui province, November 30, 2008. 

HIV infected girl, Chen Xueyan, 9, adjusts her clothes in her home in Fuyang, Anhui province, November 28, 2009. 

Terminally ill Thai men receive treatment at a hospice for those dying of AIDS, at Wat Prabat Nampu Buddhist temple in Lopburi, on World AIDS day, December 1, 2009. 

Zhou Huiying, a HIV-infected patient and her infected four-year-old child are seen at a clinic held for HIV patients in Funan county of Fuyang, Anhui province, November 30, 2008. 

U Sam Hla, a terminally ill AIDS patient rests in his hut at the HIV/AIDS hospice founded by a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the suburbs of Yangon May 26, 2012.

An HIV-AIDS patient is helped onto his bed by his sister and a caregiver visiting him at his home in Matero township on the outskirts of Lusaka April 17, 2012.

end

cast Living with HIV

images credit   www.          Music o mio babbino caro sarah brightman & filippa giordano       created   o.e.

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