World AIDS Day 2025
Friday, 5 December, 2025 | Words by NUAA Chairperson Andy Heslop
Every year on 1st December we acknowledge World AIDS Day. It is a privilege to write this article acknowledging my HIV status and call to end HIV discrimination.
I am proud of my HIV status, being a person living with HIV. Perhaps you think it strange to admit but nonetheless it is a badge I carry with honour, humility and responsibility.
Why be proud of acquiring a disease?
I was diagnosed in 2012, a devastating moment. The diagnosis came as no surprise; I was living fast and loose and it upended my life. I suddenly had a ‘crisis of self’. Who was I? On examination, I did not like what I saw in the reflection.
I became someone interested in their health, in healthy relationships, in life, in participating, and in showing up for others. I learnt why these things mattered. I decided to devote my life and career to the community health workforce. I volunteered and ran weekly events for people living with HIV in Sydney. It was exhilarating getting my first job and having my experience and knowledge validated. I progressed into representational and management roles. I began to see the ‘whole picture’ of community work and understand why community health is so vital. I levelled up my game. I changed who I was.
The most important thing I changed was how I communicated. I listened more. I chose my words with care and compassion. As a peer worker I made it my responsibility to understand language and its effect. Language is our key communication device - it makes a huge difference when we get it right.
Saying that people living with HIV “have AIDS” and relying on outdated 1980’s information is stigmatising. Peer workers should have a modern understanding of HIV treatments and their wonderful, functional cure-like effects. Making assumptions that people living with HIV are sexually promiscuous or that they ‘infect’ others is judgemental, ill-informed, and wrong.
Nearly everyone (99%) diagnosed with HIV in NSW is on treatment and has an undetectable viral load. ‘Undetectable’ means that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus is undetectable in blood pathology. Treatments for HIV are truly exceptional life changing medications, and they’ve been around since 1996. Today they are available in many combinations.
Being on treatment prevents HIV transmission. We’ve known this since before 2008. Today we call it ‘Zero Risk’ and in 2023 the World Health Organisation released guidance that states people living with HIV on treatment, with an undetectable viral load, cannot transmit HIV.
Another health-promotion movement say that being ‘Undetectable = Untransmissible’ or ‘U=U’ - an awkward equation that nonetheless describes decades of rigorous scientific research that conclusively proves people living with HIV who are undetectable and on treatment cannot pass on HIV to others.
The 1980’s were 5 decades ago. The fear, misunderstanding, judgement, and the stigma are almost as old as I am, and still it persists today. I’ve been on the receiving end of many unintended but nonetheless stigmatising conversations.
People living with HIV are not infectious, unhealthy, or going to die early. Living with HIV doesn’t mean I will develop acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The Grim Reaper isn’t real.
I live my life openly, authentically, healthily, and in full knowledge that through my daily treatment I can be assured of a long life, uncomplicated by compounding health issues, and safe in the scientific fact that I cannot pass on HIV to others.
I’m always open to hearing from our community and if you would like to know more, I would love to hear from you. Don’t forget to go and see your local sexual health clinic and get tested regularly if you are sexually active.
Let’s drop the word AIDS and start using people first language. Living with HIV has made me stronger, kinder and changed my life in many profoundly positive ways. I’m proud of that.
Andy has been the Chairperson of NUAA since 2024 and a NUAA board member for four years. He previously worked at both Positive Life NSW and NUAA as a Lived and Living Experience educator, programs coordinator, and senior health promotions manager. He is an advocate for people who use drugs and people living with HIV.