ABSTRACT
For over a quarter of a century we have lived with the presence of HIV. The challenge of HIV, a ‘dread’ disease, has raised many questions as to what the process of adjustment, integration and adaptation to such suffering means. We probably need a whole compendium of definitions to help clarify all the ramifications of this particular virus’ arrival. Having a relatively new virus that may not seem to affect an individual overtly, but has the potential to be life threatening, is difficult to assimilate. In addition, the fact that in 2006 a 47-year-old man became the first gay British male to be convicted for deliberately infecting his partner with HIV shows that we are navigating uncharted territory. The advent of HIV has had a profound effect on the gay male community, and the history of how HIV is perceived has, in turn, been strongly affected by its link to homosexuality. In the early 1980s, the 30 diagnoses per month in San Francisco alone resulted in palpable shock waves of fear that led to the questioning of life as it had been.
