ONE day, and one day very soon, HIV will be contained.
There will soon be no new HIV diagnoses. The signs are already here: there are no more deaths caused directly by AIDS-related illnesses, and soon there will be reports of periods of no new transmissions of HIV and then, with tentative rumours, whispers cascading to controversial bold claims and then a final roar of confirmation that there are no more HIV transmissions on the landmass of Australia.
It will happen, and soon.
Sure, there will be minor mop ups as visitors and migrants – mostly from high HIV prevalent countries – are welcomed from plane and boat to the land of PrEP, testing and TasP (treatment as prevention), but the substantive epidemic for Australians will be over. AIDS is already the polio of our times, HIV is heading the same way. And I’m excited.
For a generation and a half, our identity has been shifted into the HIV zone. All that energy, all that focus and all those resources will soon release to find another home. Maybe now we can talk of getting new stuff done and maybe now we deserve some new, bright and shiny things. We gave so much, let’s talk rewards.
I came out in 1982 by calling the South Australian Gay Counselling Service phone number. I spoke to a counsellor for a while who suggested the Thursday night “Drop In”. I went (we’ll skip the bit where I was terrified) and while I was there, Ian Hunter, now a South Australian upper house MP, dropped by with a flyer for a new Gay Youth Group he was starting Â.