POZ March 2026

HEALTH, LIFE & HIV

She’s Still Here

Now 71, long-term survivor Sherri Lewis reflects on the gift of staying alive.

O’Connor and her two children are full of

#ADVOCACY

Fighting against HIV and AIDS has always been a struggle. Much work remains to end the epidemic. POZ encourages you to get involved in advocacy. Go to poz.com/advocacy to nd the latest news and learn how you can make a di erence in the ght.

D #POZ STORIES

When people living with and a ected by HIV share their stories, it can break down the shame, silence and stigma surrounding the virus. These stories can inspire, educate and empower others. To read POZ Stories or to share your own, visit poz.com/stories

D #UNDETECTABLE

The science is clear: People who have an undetectable viral load don’t transmit HIV sexually. In addition to keeping people healthy, e ective HIV treatment also means HIV prevention. Go to poz.com/undetectable for more.

D

POZ DIGITAL

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20 A VOICE FOR THE AGES Long-term HIV survivor

Sherri Lewis recounts the journey of a lifetime, from Top 40 pop singer to wise storyteller. BY SHERRI LEWIS

26 KEEPING HOPE ALIVE Hyacinth AIDS Foundation

been helping people with HIV for decades. BY TIM MURPHY

AIDS Alabama CEO Kathie Hiers plans to retire after spending 30 years fighting for people living with HIV in the South. 6

Prevention Access Campaign has a new leader • TLC singer reworks a hit song for prevention • most Ryan White clients are undetectable • POZ Stories: Michael McColly

• student settles discrimination case • Everyday: moments in the epidemic 10 VOICES

The winners of the 10th Annual POZ Awards

• Kal Gajraj, PhD, of CAN Community Health, emphasizes the importance of World AIDS Day

from World AIDS Day 2025

14 NUTRITION & FITNESS

Nourish bowl • places to be physically active

15 BASICS

Women and HIV

16 CARE & TREATMENT

Ways you can help fight HIV 3

Lenacapavir PrEP for trans people and substance users • benefits of shingles vaccine• HIV combo pills in the pipeline

• cities see upticks in new HIV cases

18 RESEARCH NOTES

A promising new HIV vaccine strategy

• HIV medications and weight gain • combo immunotherapy • new gonorrhea meds

32 HEROES

Heather O’Connor found her voice when she became a mother and an advocate for others living with HIV.

33 POSTER

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I Am Woman

AS THE MANAGING editor of POZ for

more than 20 years, I’ve witnessed many high and low points in the fight to end the epidemic. The actions of the current Trump administration rank among the lowest points. From massive cuts to HIV funding to attacks on public health and science, the progress we’ve made is being undermined and threatened. Yet the HIV community—rooted in resilience, powered by collective action and driven by a commitment to help one another—remains strong. To paraphrase Helen Reddy, you can bend but never break us.

Longtime survivor Sherri Lewis exemplifies this resilience. Nearly 40 years ago on her birthday, she learned she was HIV positive. A former pop singer, Lewis has used her voice and shared her story to educate and support others. She’s survived COVID-19, hepatitis C, colon cancer, homelessness and multiple losses. Recently, she served on the board of the newly opened STORIES: The AIDS Monument in West Hollywood. Turn to page 20 to read her first-person essay.

For more than three decades, AIDS Alabama CEO Kathie Hiers has been using her voice to help reshape national HIV policy and fight for people living with HIV in the South. Turn to page 4 to read a Q&A with Hiers about her legacy and what’s next as she plans for her retirement.

Heather O’Connor found her voice as an advocate when she became pregnant. She felt a deep responsibility to create safe spaces, not only for her children but also for herself and others. When she wasn’t supported in her choice to breastfeed her newborn, she spoke up and now advocates for other women living with HIV. She also empowers long-term and life-term survivors at The Reunion Project. Go to page 32 to read her story.

Women on antiretroviral therapy can have healthy babies born free of HIV, and

breastfeeding is an option for those with viral suppression. Turn to page 15 to learn more about women and HIV.

Hyacinth, New Jersey’s largest HIV organization, is another example of the community’s resilience. Last fall, it marked 40 years of serving people living with and at risk for HIV. Go to page 26 to learn how the organization educates and supports the communities it serves.

Last year, when the State Department instructed employees and grantees to “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels, media engagements, speeches or other public-facing messaging,” advocates responded. Turn to page 14 to see how the HIV community— including Madonna—marked the day with protests, candlelight vigils and more.

Advocacy comes in many forms, and every action—big or small—brings us closer to ending the epidemic. Turn to the back of this issue for the POZ advocacy poster and discover how you can make a difference.

Together, we have the power to end HIV.

JENNIFER MORTON MANAGING EDITOR news@poz.com

A SOUTHERN HIV ICON ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

AIDS Alabama CEO Kathie Hiers has spent 30 years reshaping national HIV policy and fighting for people living with HIV in the South.

ON DECEMBER 2, KATHIE HIERS, THE LONGTIME CEO OF AIDS Alabama, announced her retirement. POZ contributor Mark S. King spoke with Hiers about her work, her legacy and what’s next for the community and for herself.

Recent government actions have crippled so much of our work. It’s been tough on everyone. How are you?

Today, I’m sitting in my office, and I am about to tell the staff about my retirement. I’ve got the door shut. My board already knows. It’s hard to tell people. I’m a big crybaby.

How will that go, telling your staff, do you think?

This is hard after doing this for 30-plus years. This work is a calling for me. In the early days, I lost so many friends. I threw an address book away because I couldn’t stand to look at it anymore. I’m scared we’re going back to those times with all that’s going on now. My retirement date is June 1, and I will stay around for another six months to help with projects.

When did your HIV work begin?

In 1993, I walked into the local organization in Mobile, Alabama, and got hired. Before that, I had started a nonprofit organization to help people with AIDS with their Christmas wish lists or visit people alone in the hospital. We helped people die with a little dignity, since there was nothing else you could do then. By 1998, I was on the board of AIDS Alabama, and in 2002, I became their director.

You’ve become an iconic national HIV leader—and from Alabama of all places. How?

I was driven by what I felt was an inequity. People living with HIV in the South were being wronged. When I began to understand the national landscape, it became very clear to me that the South was being royally screwed. We had the fastest-growing HIV population, the most people dying and over 1,000 people on waiting lists for medications. Nobody wanted to talk about the fact these were minority people. That fired me up. So I got together with some other Southern AIDS directors, and we started the Southern AIDS Coalition. We put on a full-fledged campaign, writing op-eds, going to every conference, showing the disparities between urban and rural areas. It did not make me popular, though.

I was at the United States Conference on HIV/AIDS one year, talking about

this in a meeting, and someone from New York started screaming that I was a liar and that I was trying to steal money from big cities.

You were able to change the way HIV funding goes to the South?

Yes. By 2006, we managed to get more money from the Ryan White CARE Act, and then we started working to get the HOPWA [Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS] laws changed, which we did by 2016. That helped a lot.

What are your thoughts about retirement? You’re about to walk through a door you’ve been looking at for a long time.

It’s such an unknown for me. When you’ve done something your entire adult life, you can’t imagine a life without it. It’s a little sad, but I know I can’t do this forever and need to quit while I’m in decent shape.

What’s a defining memory of your work?

When we finally persuaded President George W. Bush to put money in ADAP [the AIDS Drug Assistance Program], and the waiting list we had in Alabama disappeared. I’ll never forget when the Ryan White law got changed in 2006 to give more money to the South. I was watching C-SPAN when they started debating and passed it, and I was all by myself screaming in joy at the television. It was the culmination of years of advocacy and hard work.

You saved lives that day. Yeah. It was a group effort, but yeah. Definitely.

Activism makes strange bedfellows. I hear you once found common ground with former Trump Attorney General and Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. How in the world did that happen?

I’m a big believer that you go into the offices of people who don’t agree with you. I had never gotten much traction with Senator Jeff Sessions. He would meet with me—I’ll give him that. But I found out his pet peeve was Alabama getting cheated on federal dollars. So

I explained to him how Alabama was losing these HIV funds, and he was all about it, then. He got other senators involved, and they fought on the Senate floor for us. He became a huge ally.

There has been a rash of prominent HIV leader retirements recently—Paul Kawata of NMAC, Jesse Milan of AIDS United and now you. What’s going on?

We’re getting old! I’m 71 now. I’ll be 72 when my role here ends. That’s just the laws of nature. But all the retirements worry me. Those are the people who lived through the dark days. I often have young people come to work for me

populations and geographic areas that aren’t doing as well.

What’s next for you?

I definitely want to take a little time off, do something fun. I’m also moving back to my hometown of Mobile.

Do you have a bucket list?

I love to travel. I’ve never been to Asia. That’s something I’ll be doing.

I’m a romantic, so I hope there will be a loving partner at your side in the future to enjoy retirement with.

That’s on my bucket list too. It hasn’t happened, but I’m open to it. I get to do

“I was driven by what I felt was an inequity.”

who know nothing about the history of the epidemic.

How vital is new leadership to our movement and balancing that with people who understand organizational and pandemic history?

I’m not saying those young people can’t turn into dynamic leaders, but we need to make sure they understand our history, especially today when we are facing the same challenges we faced in the early days.

Is that your message to younger folks joining this movement?

Yes. Look at the history of the epidemic and understand the dangers of where we are now. I can’t think of any other disease that has made as much progress in such a short time. In 40 years, we’ve moved from a death sentence to a normal life expectancy. This has happened quickly but not evenly. We still have key

a lot of cool things. It would be fun to share it with someone.

Consider this interview your Hinge profile.

What’s Hinge?

It’s like Tinder.

Oh, like the boys have Grindr? There should be one for the girls called Shrub.

I love it. That’s your new project. Launch that.

Got it.

Thank you for your service to so many people, Kathie.

You’re welcome, but I’m not going anywhere. Q

Visit aidsalabama.org to learn more about the group’s work, watch a video on Kathie Hiers’s retirement or make a contribution in her honor.

TELLING THE WORLD ABOUT U=U

Monique Carry helms Prevention Access Campaign and promotes Undetectable = Untransmittable.

The new year definitely meant a new start for Monique Carry, PhD, MA, who on January 1 became the acting executive director of Prevention Access Campaign (PAC). The powerhouse nonprofit helped confirm and then broadcast the fact that people living with HIV who achieve and maintain viral suppression don’t transmit HIV to others through sex, a fact better known as Undetectable = Untransmittable, or U=U. Thanks to PAC, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, U=U has become a global movement, transforming what it means to live and love while HIV positive. We spoke with the Atlanta-based Carry about PAC’s past successes and future goals; visit POZ.com for the full interview.

Why is U=U so transformative?

Because it tells the truth, and it gives that truth back to people who were denied it for far too long. What makes U=U especially powerful is that it emerged from people living with HIV demanding that science be communicated honestly and without fear. In doing so, U=U challenged decades of stigma, misinformation and moral judgment.

U=U has helped people reclaim their sense of agency. It has changed how providers counsel clients, how partners understand risk and how communities talk about HIV. It has also opened the door to conversations about trust, disclosure, intimacy and dignity in ways that traditional prevention messages never could.

U=U reminds us that ending the HIV epidemic happens when we pair biomedical advances with truth and compassion. That is why this campaign still matters and why it continues to be a cornerstone of both effective public health and human rights.

You have extensive experience in global health and behavioral sciences, including 15 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Have you seen the power of U=U? In my entire career, I have never seen a message resonate so profoundly or so immediately transform how people see themselves and their worth.

I have sat with young people living with HIV who shared poems, songs and skits they had written about what it meant

to finally understand U=U. For some of them, learning that they could live full lives, love freely and not transmit HIV quite literally saved their lives. I have had friends tell me that learning about U=U was the moment they chose sobriety, sought stable housing and began to imagine a future they did not think was possible before. And I have held babies born to mixed-status couples who were once told that having a family is out of reach but who now know otherwise because of U=U.

Monique Carry is leading the Prevention Access Campaign.

I see how U=U changes lives. What stays with me is the relief, hope and joy people feel when they learn the truth and the heavy burden of fear is lifted. Those experiences also make me think about what is still possible. What would it look like if every person learned about U=U at the moment of diagnosis? If laws, policies and practices were shaped by what the science tells us is true?

Tell us about a recent PAC success.

One of the most important milestones was the launch of U=U University [a series of free online training courses], which opened new ways for people around the world to learn about U=U, build practical skills and bring this knowledge directly into their communities.

Finally, what’s ahead this year?

2026 is an exciting year for PAC, as we launch the “10 Years of U=U” campaign, which is both a celebration and a collective invitation. It honors the extraordinary work of partners and communities across every region, from marching in the streets of Paris to riding bikes across Namibia! We are also inviting partners and community members to bring U=U University directly into their own networks and communities.

I am excited about what lies ahead because the work is not finished and the path forward is being shaped collectively, and I am honored to be part of that journey.

—Trent Straube

TLC’s Tionne

“T-Boz” Watkins Reworks a ’90s Hit for HIV Prevention

A new anthem for PrEP and sexual empowerment!

TLC’s Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Gilead Sciences teamed up to transform the group’s iconic ’90s hit “Creep” into “So We PrEP,” an anthem for sexual empowerment and HIV prevention. PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a safe and effective antiretroviral medication used by HIVnegative people to reduce their risk of contracting HIV.

“In the ’90s, we used our platform to speak truth and empower people to love themselves. That mission hasn’t changed,” said Watkins. “‘So We PrEP’ is about reclaiming that same energy by taking a classic that meant something to our generation and turning it into a conversation starter about protection, pride and Black joy. We don’t whisper about our health; we sing about it.”

The song is a key component of Gilead’s “Care for the Culture” campaign, which aims to spark honest conversations about sexual health in Black communities, reduce stigma and more.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends most forms of PrEP for people at risk for sexually acquired HIV. This means insurers are required to fully cover PrEP at no cost. Medicare and Medicaid also cover PrEP, but state programs may vary as to which associated services, such as lab tests, they cover.

To date, the Food and Drug Administration has approved four forms of PrEP: Truvada and Descovy are daily pills; Apretude is a shot given every two months; and Yeztugo is a twice-yearly injectable. Descovy is not yet indicated as PrEP for cisgender women and trans men. To learn more about PrEP, visit POZ.com/PrEP.

—Laura Schmidt

T-Boz Watkins

OVER 90% OF RYAN WHITE CLIENTS REACH UNDETECTABLE STATUS

Nearly half of Americans diagnosed with HIV receive services via Ryan White. And yet its future is threatened.

New data from 2024 show that over 90% of clients in the federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program reach viral suppression. In other words, their viral load is undetectable. Nationally, about 67% of people diagnosed with HIV were undetectable in 2023.

In 2024, 75% of Ryan White clients were racial or ethnic minorities.

According to the new 2024 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Annual Data Report, the “continued, steady improvements in viral suppression could be due to innovations in care delivery, such as rapid antiretroviral therapy (ART) or new medication options (e.g., two-drug combinations, longacting injectable medications).”

The report shows that 47% of Ryan White clients are 50 or older, 75% are members of racial or ethnic minorities and nearly 50% are covered by Medicaid and/or Medicare. Of note, the report did not include data on LGBTQ people— including transgender people— who are living with HIV and receiving Ryan White support, although this population is disproportionately affected by the epidemic.

In 2024, a total of 601,853 clients received services from providers funded by Ryan White—the most ever served in the agency’s 35-year history, according to a press release about the report. This accounts for over half of people diagnosed with

from

HIV in the United States. The federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program provides HIV services for low-income people by funding cities, counties, states and local community- based organizations that provide HIV care, treatment, prevention and essential services.

Despite successes highlighted throughout this latest report, the Trump White House and Republican leaders in Congress aim to gut federal HIV funds.

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program launched in 1990 after Congress passed the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act. The program is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

“For 35 years, HRSA’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program has transformed HIV from a death sentence into a manageable chronic condition by ensuring access to comprehensive care, medications and essential support services nationwide,” said HRSA administrator Thomas Engels in a press release. “Today’s data underscore the critical role of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program in improving health outcomes in communities across the country.”

—Trent Straube

THE HEALING POWER OF WALKING

After decades of living with HIV and burying his own pain, author Michael McColly learned that transformation sometimes begins on the road just outside your door.

In my memory, I can still see myself walking slowly south down Michigan Avenue on that cold, windy spring day in Chicago, like a lost little boy in a big city, my feet moving but my body frozen in fear from what was printed on that piece of paper in my pocket: my full name, James Michael McColly, and that dreaded word underneath: positive.

For those of us who live with HIV, there is the life before we found out and the life we must choose to live every day thereafter. As survivors, many of us carry a burden of profound grief. Anger, too, can haunt us. But there are gifts bestowed on us from the wisdom of suffering that we must learn to share.

When I discovered I had contracted HIV, I was performing a monologue in a small theater in Chicago.

Devastated, sickened by the drugs I was taking, terrified I was going to fall apart onstage, I sat behind the curtain and called forth the faces of all the people I could imagine—friends, family, students, coworkers and all the people I’d lived with as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal. Though I went blank one night and had to be handed my script, I managed, and the show went on.

My second book, The After-Death Room, chronicles my journey from Africa to Asia to America reporting on the creative and dedicated work of AIDS activists, doctors and traditional healers. From orphanages and clinics in South Africa to brothels and back alleys in Thailand, to prisons and homeless shelters in the United States, to temples and hospitals in India, I recorded hundreds of stories of dying people who did not have access to the very pills in my own pocket.

Eventually, to my surprise and anger, I realized that though my writing and teaching were of benefit to others, they had become a shield for me to hide behind, a way for me to avoid the corrosive shame and sadness I’d been carrying all these years from before my diagnosis.

How is it that we can spend a lifetime trying to be compassionate and caring for others and yet neglect ourselves?

I often think that having to perform that show, having to entertain and make people laugh, was critical for my survival—not only in those first days of my diagnosis but also for the years that have followed.

Teaching, writing and performing would be a way to survive, to heal, to give back. And for 25 years, this is what I did.

My first book was a collection of essays by immigrant students that I gathered while teaching English as a second language—poignant and sometimes painful stories of walking through jungles and deserts, surviving in small boats at sea, fleeing men with machine guns, watching families get tortured and working humble and dangerous jobs in Chicago.

Both before and after I contracted HIV, I had taken refuge by hiking in natural landscapes. It was a hobby I inherited from my parents, but I’d never understood how beneficial it truly was—not only for my physical and emotional well-being but also for my spiritual health. I hiked for adventure and to exercise, but I didn’t realize I was letting my body be soothed and nurtured by nature’s beauty and wonder. Then, a few years ago while hiking in Scotland and England, I began to experience various emotions and physical sensations, feelings both of joy and grief, especially when I spent long days on my feet. My body seemed opened and energized in a way I’d not felt since I was a boy. My legs eagerly wanted more. Getting back on a plane and returning to Chicago felt like torture. When I got home, I made up my mind that I didn’t have to stop walking. I could listen to my body’s desire and

walk across Chicago. And so I did.

Taking off from my apartment, I walked 63 miles along the shores of Lake Michigan, through the city and the polluted industrial lands of Indiana, and ended up at America’s most urban of national parks, the Indiana Dunes—ironically, the place where I used to hike when I’d first learned of my HIV diagnosis.

Though I didn’t realize it, I had made a spiritual pilgrimage of sorts, letting the land, with all its wounds and beauty, carry and hold me and educate and inspire me as I walked mile by mile through this metropolis, the very place where I have lived and worked and no doubt will die.

With intention, we need not travel far to feel our legs firmly on the ground, our minds awakened by perception and our hearts animated by the miracles of nature and human creativity. Wherever we are, we can set out and find salvation in the world below our feet.

What three adjectives describe you? Addictive, empathetic, adventuresome.

What is your greatest achievement?

Publishing three books: The World Is Round, The After-Death Room and Walking Chicago’s Coast.

What keeps you up at night?

The cowardly and greedy behavior of those in power.

If you could change one thing about living with HIV, what would it be? Erasing the stigma and misinformation people have about it.

What is the best advice you ever received?

Read widely and learn another language.

What drives you to do what you do? Love.

What is your motto? “Carpe diem.”

If you could be any animal, what would you be? And why?

An eagle or hawk to fly and to float above the earth on the wind.

Read other POZ Stories or share your own at poz.com/stories.

Student With HIV Settles Discrimination Case

Buffalo State University expelled her from campus because of her HIV status.

A woman living with HIV received $115,000 in a legal settlement reached with Buffalo State University regarding HIV discrimination. She filed a lawsuit against the Buffalo campus of the State University of New York after the college evicted her from student housing and expelled her from campus due to her positive HIV status, according to the Legal Action Center (LAC).

Represented jointly by LAC, Housing Works and attorney Anna Marie Richmond, the woman, identified as Betty Jones to protect her privacy, argued that Buffalo State’s actions were discriminatory and based on outdated beliefs about HIV transmission.

In 2022, Jones contacted Buffalo State authorities after the person she was dating reacted aggressively when she disclosed she is HIV positive. Rather than offer support, Buffalo

EVERYDAY

March

State suspended and removed Jones from campus. The school claims that she was involved in “health and safety incidents that put [the] campus at risk.”

Such a claim is not grounded in current medical evidence about HIV transmission. People with HIV who take their meds and maintain an undetectable viral load do not transmit the virus sexually, a fact referred to as Undetectable Equals Untransmittable, or U=U.

Jones, who has been taking daily antiretroviral medication for years, has achieved such viral suppression, according to LAC.

pursuing what I have worked so hard for. For me, this settlement is a win, and I hope it helps ensure no one has to go through what I did.”

“Everything I had worked for my whole life was gone in a flash. My heart felt completely shattered,” Jones said. “But the pain and humiliation I endured as a result of my arrest and expulsion did not stop me from having hope and

In addition to paying Jones $115,000 in compensation, Buffalo State was ordered to remove the disciplinary proceeding from her transcript and file.

“Hopefully, her case will inspire other institutions to proactively educate their staffs regarding HIV science and the rights of persons living with HIV,” Richmond said. —Laura Schmidt

These dates represent milestones in the HIV epidemic. Visit poz.com/aidsiseveryday to learn more about the history of HIV and AIDS. BY

4-7 10

The 25th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) is held in Boston. Today, the conference highlights the latest research in HIV, hepatitis viruses, COVID-19, monkeypox and related conditions. (2018)

NATIONAL WOMEN AND GIRLS HIV/AIDS AWARENESS DAY

20

NATIONAL NATIVE HIV/AIDS AWARENESS DAY

The IPHONE 7 AND 7 PLUS (PRODUCT) RED special editions go on sale online and in stores worldwide. Featuring a vibrant red aluminum finish, these models celebrate more than 10 years of partnership between Apple and (RED), supporting the Global Fund’s efforts in the fight against HIV and AIDS. (2017)

of

Hong Kong–born American photographer TSENG KWONG CHI dies of an AIDS-related illness. He was active in the 1980s East Village art scene and known for his self-portrait series East Meets West. (1990)

24 28

THE INHERITANCE, a play about a group of gay men living in New York a generation after the early days of the AIDS crisis, premieres at the Young Vic in London. It opens on Broadway the following year. (2018)

POZ AWARDS 2025

In an article titled “POZ Awards 2025: Winners,” the POZ editors compiled the winners, as voted on by readers, of the 10th Annual POZ Awards, which spotlight HIV and AIDS in media and culture. Below is an edited excerpt.

BEST CELEBRITY ADVOCATE

Paul Reubens

Though Paul Reubens, better known to the world as Pee-wee Herman, died in 2023, his story is told more roundly in the documentary Pee-wee as Himself, which was released last year via HBO. In the lm, Reubens speaks openly about visiting his former partner Guy in the hospital as he was dying of AIDS-related complications. Reubens also underscores that Guy inspired the iconic character Pee-wee Herman and that many of his quirky and unique vocalizations were homages to his earliest love.

BEST IN FILM OR TELEVISION

Pee-wee as Himself

There’s no doubt that Pee-wee Herman is an enduring cultural icon. But with Pee-wee as Himself, director Matt Wolf brought us a portrait of the man behind the eccentric character. Though Paul Reubens may have been recognizable because he was Pee-wee, very few people knew the story behind the man. In this twopart documentary, we learn that Reubens lost his rst partner, Guy, to AIDS-related causes. Guy was also the basis for many of Pee-wee’s mannerisms and

eccentricities, underscoring that one of American culture’s funniest and most enduring characters is based on the humor of a person who was living with HIV. Reubens’s story serves as a reminder that the virus is o en with us in invisible ways, undergirding much of what we consume in pop culture.

BEST IN LITERATURE

Outliving Michael by Steven Reigns

Outliving Michael, a follow-up to A Quilt for David, is a memoir told through poetry that details Reigns’s friendship with Michael Church, who died of AIDS-related illness in 2000. Hailed as a “disarmingly honest portrait” of a friend lost to the virus as well as a “stunning elegy,” the book ruminates on the many ways individuals leave lasting marks on our lives long a er they are gone.

BEST IN VISUAL

ARTS

To Love-To Die; To Fight. To Live.: Art and Activism in the Time of AIDS

The close relationship between art and the activist response to the AIDS epidemic is well known but always ripe for further exploration. This School of Visual Arts exhibition, which took place on the

40th anniversary of the AIDS Quilt and was made in collaboration with the New York City AIDS Memorial, focused on art as a form of survival during the earliest days of AIDS. Aside from displaying patches of the Quilt, as well as famous posters from collectives such as Gran Fury, the exhibition also hosted public quilt-making workshops honoring the lives of New Yorkers, including the lives of School of Visual Arts alumni.

BEST REASON TO KEEP ACTING UP

RFK Jr. and the CDC

As pointed out by many former o cials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is endangering the health of every American. In an open letter published by The New York Times, several former CDC directors wrote that Kennedy’s reign is “unlike anything we had ever seen at the agency and unlike anything our country had ever experienced.” Not only has Kennedy gutted the agency at every level, but he has also minimized the importance of vaccines in favor of unproven treatments and replaced experts with people who embrace unscienti c outlooks. Q

Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal perform at CAN Community Health’s World AIDS Day 2025 concert series.

NEVER SILENT

In an opinion piece titled “‘No Day But Today’: Silence Is Never a Strategy for Ending the HIV Epidemic,” Kal Gajraj, PhD, of CAN Community Health, emphasizes the importance of World AIDS Day. Below is an edited excerpt.

THE U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT quietly chose not to mark World AIDS Day, a global day of remembrance, solidarity and spotlight to the ongoing HIV epidemic observed each December 1. It’s the rst time the United States has not participated since the World Health Organization created this day in 1988 to remember the millions of people who have died of AIDS-related illnesses and recommit to ghting the epidemic that still claims the lives of more than half a million people each year.

According to reporting based on internal State Department guidance, agency employees and grantees were told to “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels,” and a senior o cial framed the changes as part of a policy to avoid observance messaging on commemorative days. Reportedly, this administration states that “an awareness day is not a strategy.”

As a public health organization that sits on the front lines of lifesaving services, CAN Community Health knows that World AIDS Day is far more than just an awareness day. It’s a focal point for outreach, expanded testing and remembrances. It’s also an opportune time to release data that help target resources and reach communities as well as a chance to spotlight policy or funding decisions that materially

a ect access to care.

Muting that focal point hinders work that’s already di cult and underfunded. It removes a trusted moment when the government historically ampli ed commitments and resources.

HIV remains an urgent public health issue. In 2023, there were roughly 39,000 new cases nationwide; the South continues to shoulder a disproportionate burden. Surveillance data show progress in some areas, but persistent disparities by race, age and geography require continued attention and resources.

Our neighbors, friends, coworkers and chosen families see World AIDS Day as a time of visibility. These numbers represent real people.

The White House’s public explanation for not observing World AIDS Day, as reported in the media, is twofold: a desire to avoid “commemorative day” messaging and a view that awareness days are not a public health strategy. These points miss how awareness days function in practice. As I mentioned, historically, World AIDS Day has been a platform for announcing funding commitments, launching targeted outreach campaigns, releasing surveillance data that drive decision-making and reducing stigma through visible leadership. This decision also arrives at a policy moment when the federal posture on global and domestic HIV programs is shi ing,

including reduced engagement with international health institutions and funding changes that advocates warn will have immeasurable consequences.

In response, CAN Community Health will not be silent. We continue to mark World AIDS Day with our patients and partners through events, sponsorships, social media and outreach. In 2025, our “No Day But Today” concert series with Broadway Rent stars Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal brought communities together in both Fort Lauderdale and Tampa.

Removing World AIDS Day from the calendar of public commemoration doesn’t erase the virus. It simply removes one important, proven lever we use to keep people protected, educated and seen.

At CAN Community Health, we’ll continue to keep using every lever available—be it data, medical breakthroughs, local partnerships or innovative campaigns—until HIV is no longer a public health threat.

Because World AIDS Day alone is not an entire public health strategy, but neither is silence. Q

Kal Gajraj, PhD, is the senior vice president and chief marketing o cer of CAN Community Health, which o ers HIV services across Florida as well as in select cities in Arizona, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

WORLD AIDS DAY 2025

For the first time since 1988, the U.S. government did not observe World AIDS Day last year. Noted each December 1, the day is intended to honor the millions of people lost to the disease, acknowledge progress made in the fight against HIV and AIDS and raise awareness among the general public that the epidemic persists. Last November, under the direction of President Trump, the State Department instructed employees and grantees to “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels, media engagements, speeches or other public-facing messaging,” according to an email obtained by the New York Times.

Longtime HIV activist Peter Staley, a cofounder of PrEP4All, which seeks to expand access to preexposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention, called the move “petty and hostile,” adding, “It just felt very reminiscent of the Reagan administration,” referring to the former president’s catastrophic neglect of AIDS in the 1980s during the peak era of the epidemic.

Undeterred, the HIV community marked the day with messages of protest against the newly announced Trump policy, along with more traditional remembrances, like candlelight vigils, the unveiling of new AIDS memorials and more, all of which was documented and shared via posts on social media, like those collected here.

1. For its first World AIDS Day ceremony, the recently unveiled STORIES: The AIDS Monument in West Hollywood hosted an event where community members gathered to remember, mourn, renew their activism and hear moving stories from the community. 2. Longtime HIV advocate Madonna shared some stern words regarding the Trump administration’s decision not to promote World AIDS Day. 3. On behalf of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS actor and activist Javier Muñoz , who is living with HIV, observed a moment of silence to honor the lives lost to AIDS-related causes. 4. ABC7 LA correspondent Karl Schmid , who is living with HIV, proudly stood beside former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi at the World AIDS Day event Light in the Grove at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco.

5. Sister Roma , of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, emceed the Light in the Grove event. 6. The New York City AIDS Memorial event included a reading of the names of those lost to AIDS.

7. Longtime HIV advocate Rosie Perez , who volunteered at God’s Love We Deliver, which has delivered meals to people living with HIV for 40 years, shared what World AIDS Day means to her. 8. In Washington, DC, Housing Works demonstrated alongside AIDS United , NMAC and Health GAP to confront deadly political obstruction and highlight the number of lives that will be lost around the world due to the lack of HIV and AIDS funding. 9. The Palm Springs AIDS Memorial sculpture The Well of Love by Phillip K. Smith III, broke ground on World AIDS Day. A digital rendering showed the memorial’s scale.

Send your event photos to POZ at website@poz. com or tag us on Facebook, Instagram or X. For a list of community events, visit poz.com/calendar.

NOURISH BOWL

Try this recipe or build your own.

GRAIN BOWLS ARE ENDLESSLY ADAPTABLE and perfect for using up leftovers. This nourish bowl is a nutritionally complete meal that’s rich in protein from the combo of brown rice and chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) and phytonutrients thanks to the colorful veggies.

SERVINGS: 4 / INGREDIENTS: 19

INGREDIENTS

1½ cups quinoa, cooked and cooled

3 medium sweet potatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 medium beets, peeled and grated

2 large apples, cored and diced

6 cups arugula or baby spinach

½ cup raw walnuts

DIRECTIONS

For the Tahini Dressing:

¼ cup tahini

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon maple syrup

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 tablespoons water, or more as needed

¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste

¼ teaspoon pepper, or to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Wash and peel the sweet potatoes and cut into 1-inch cubes. Mix with olive oil, salt, pepper and toss to coat. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven and let cool.

3. Combine ingredients for the tahini dressing in a mixing bowl and whisk or blend. Gradually pour in water while blending until the mixture reaches a creamy and pourable consistency.

4. To assemble individual bowls, add quinoa, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, beets, apples, arugula or baby spinach and top with walnuts. Drizzle with tahini dressing and serve.

NUTRITION FACTS (per serving)

Calories: 519; fat: 29g; saturated fat: 17g; polyunsaturated fat: 2g; monounsaturated fat: 8g; carbohydrates: 61g; sugar: 38g; fiber: 9g; protein: 11g; sodium: 163mg

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PLACES TO BE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE

If you’re looking for fun ways to mix up your physical activity routine, check out these options.

FREE APPS

• AllTrails: Search by city, park or trail name.

• ParkPassport: Search for local, state and national parks and recreation areas.

• TrailLink: Find trails for walking, hiking, running, skating and biking by city, state, ZIP code or trail name.

WEBSITES

• FindYourPark.com: Explore national parks, recreation areas and historic sites.

• Recreation.gov: Search for recreation activities at outdoor and cultural destinations.

MORE

Search online using terms like “walking groups near me,” “dance classes near me” or “roller skating rinks near me.” You can also get information about programs from your local parks and recreation department.

Adapted from: Physical Activity Basics, CDC.gov

BY LIZ

WOMEN AND HIV

With good care and prompt treatment, women with HIV can live healthy lives.

WOMEN ACCOUNTED FOR about one in ve of the more than 39,000 people newly diagnosed with HIV in the United States in 2023. Fortunately, women respond as well as men to antiretroviral treatment, and many can bene t from pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV acquisition.

Cisgender women make up nearly a quarter of all people living with HIV in the United States, but this rises to more than half worldwide. HIV incidence among U.S. women has remained stable over the past several years, but the risk varies considerably by race/ethnicity and geography, as new cases are increasingly shi ing to the South.

Black women, who make up about 13% of the U.S. female population, are disproportionately a ected by HIV, accounting for about half of all new HIV diagnoses among women. Rates are also higher for Latina, Native American and Paci c Islander and multiracial women compared with white women.

Along with using condoms and not sharing drug injection equipment, PrEP is a highly e ective tool for preventing HIV, but women at risk are less likely than gay men to use it.

The once-daily tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine pill (Truvada or generic equivalents) is approved for cisgender women. However, a second PrEP pill, Descovy (tenofovir alafenamide/ emtricitabine), is not approved for people exposed to HIV via vaginal sex. Two long-acting injectable PrEP options— Apretude (cabotegravir), administered by a health care provider every other month, and Yeztugo (lenacapavir), administered twice a year—are safe and e ective for cisgender women, including those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

An estimated 90% of women living with HIV in the U.S. have been tested and know their status. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 82% of women diagnosed with HIV in 2023 were linked to care within one month and 70% achieved viral suppression within six months—both a bit lower than the rates for the newly diagnosed population as a whole.

HIV testing is important because people who know they are positive can start antiretroviral treatment, which

both halts disease progression and prevents HIV transmission because people with an undetectable viral load do not transmit the virus through sex.

HIV progression is similar for women and men. However, some studies nd that cisgender women may naturally control the virus better than men, suggesting they may be good candidates for functional cure strategies. Antiretroviral therapy works equally well for both sexes, and treatment recommendations are generally the same for women and men.

Compared with their HIV-negative peers, women living with HIV are at greater risk for other health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, liver disease and bone loss. To lower the risk, eat a healthy diet, get enough exercise, curb unhealthy habits, such as smoking or drinking too much, and see your health care providers regularly. It’s important to discuss not only HIV treatment but also your overall health, sexual health and concerns about aging.

Family planning is also an important consideration. Women living with HIV

can safely use most forms of contraception, but some could potentially interact with antiretrovirals. For HIVpositive women with an HIV-negative male partner, or vice versa, PrEP can enable safe conception without putting the negative partner at risk.

HIV can be passed from mother to baby during pregnancy or delivery, but e ective antiretroviral therapy prevents vertical transmission. Women on treatment can have healthy babies born free of HIV, and breastfeeding is an option for those with viral suppression.

Many women at risk for or living with HIV face additional challenges, including poverty, lack of health insurance, homelessness, violence, incarceration and criminalization related to their HIV status.

What’s more, women are o en responsible for caring for others, and they may not prioritize their own needs. But knowing your HIV status, using e ective prevention tools if you’re negative and staying on treatment if you’re positive can help maximize your own health and put you in a better position to care for loved ones. Q

Twice-Yearly Injectable PrEP for Transgender People and Substance Users

Lenacapavir pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) may be a good option for transgender people and people who use drugs and alcohol, according to two studies presented at IDWeek. Lenacapavir PrEP (brand name Yeztugo) was approved in June 2025 a er two large clinical trials showed that injections every six months dramatically lowered the risk of HIV for young cisgender women in Africa (PURPOSE 1) and for gay and bisexual men and gender-diverse people in the United States and six other countries (PURPOSE 2).

Transgender people are at greater risk for HIV, but previous studies have found that some are hesitant to take antiretrovirals for prevention or treatment due to concerns about their impact on gender-a rming hormone therapy.

In the rst study, researchers looked at interactions between hormones and lenacapavir—a moderate inhibitor of CYP3A, an enzyme that metabolizes many drugs and hormones— in PURPOSE 2. Among 115 people taking estradiol (a form of estrogen), concentrations were comparable before and a er lenacapavir administration. Similarly, testosterone and dihydrotestosterone levels generally did not change in 25 people using masculinizing hormones. These reassuring data address “a key barrier to PrEP uptake and adherence in a population that is disproportionately vulnerable to HIV acquisition,” the researchers concluded.

Many people who use substances are also at elevated risk for HIV, but social and individual barriers can make taking daily PrEP pills a challenge. The second study looked at lenacapavir PrEP adherence and safety among people who used drugs or engaged in binge drinking in PURPOSE 2. Among the more than 2,000 total participants, more than a third reported recent drug use (excluding cannabis), and 41%

reported at least monthly binge drinking. Adherence exceeded 90% and was comparable between people who did and did not use drugs or binge drink as well as across di erent types of substance use. The frequency of adverse events was also similar regardless of substance use. No clinically meaningful interactions between lenacapavir and fentanyl were noted. To learn more, the ongoing PURPOSE 4 trial is studying lenacapavir and daily oral PrEP speci cally for people who inject drugs.

More Benefits of Shingles Vaccine

People with HIV who get vaccinated against shingles can lower their risk for heart and cognitive problems and death, according to research presented at IDWeek. The two-dose shingles vaccine (Shingrix) is recommended for people over age 50 in the general population, but federal guidelines recommend it for all adults living with HIV. Shingles is caused by varicellazoster virus (VZV), a virus in the herpes family. A er recovery from chickenpox, VZV establishes latent infection in nerves near the spine and can reactivate later in life to cause shingles, characterized by a painful skin rash. Studies show that VZV also increases the likelihood of cardiovascular, neurological and other long-term complications. Ali Dehghani, DO, and George Yendewa, MD,

MPH, of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, asked whether shingles vaccination lowers the risk of these complications.

In an analysis of more than 174,000 adults ages 50 and older in the general population, vaccinated people had a 25% lower risk of heart attack or stroke, a 50% lower risk of vascular dementia and a 21% lower risk of death. In a second analysis of more than 5,000 people with HIV, the vaccine was associated with a 30% reduction in major cardiovascular events, a 48% reduction in dementia and a 46% reduction in all-cause mortality. The researchers suggested that the shingles vaccine could o er “cardio-cognitive protection” and should be bundled into comprehensive HIV care.

HIV COMBINATION PILLS IN THE PIPELINE

Modern antiretroviral treatment is safe and e ective, but researchers continue the quest for regimens that are more tolerable and convenient.

Gilead Sciences is testing a new once-daily single-tablet regimen containing its HIV capsid inhibitor lenacapavir and the integrase inhibitor bictegravir, best known as a component of Biktarvy. The ARTISTRY-1 trial enrolled over 500 heavily treatmentexperienced people on complex regimens containing up to 11 pills a day. Switching to the new combination pill was statistically noninferior to staying on a multi-tablet regimen. In ATRISTRY-2, the new combo worked as well as Biktarvy.

Merck is working on another once-daily combination pill containing the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor doravirine and islatravir, the rst nucleoside reverse transcriptase translocation inhibitor. Islatravir hit a snag in 2021 when participants in earlier trials experienced declines in CD4 or total lymphocyte counts, but scientists determined that the doses were too high, so subsequent trials tested doravirine plus a lower dose of islatravir. Researchers previously reported that people who switched from Biktarvy or another daily oral regimen were equally likely to maintain viral suppression on the new combo pill. Merck recently announced that the doravirine/islatravir pill is also safe and e ective for people starting HIV treatment for the rst time.

Finally, Gilead and Merck are developing a once-weekly combo pill containing lenacapavir and islatravir. Phase II data presented at the European AIDS Conference showed that people who switched from daily Biktarvy to separate lenacapavir and islatravir pills maintained viral suppression at 96 weeks. The companies are now testing lenacapavir/islatravir in a combination pill that could become the longest-acting regimen that doesn’t require injections.

“Developing new e ective, convenient regimens for those le behind by advances in medical research is necessary to close the unmet HIV treatment gap,” says ARTISTRY-1 investigator Chloe Orkin, MBBCh, of Queen Mary University of London.

New York and San Francisco See Upticks in New HIV Cases

Both New York City and San Francisco have seen small upticks in new HIV diagnoses, according to their latest annual epidemiology reports. In New York, 1,791 people were newly diagnosed in 2024, a 5.4% increase from 2023. In San Francisco, new diagnoses rose from an all-time low of 140 cases in 2023 to 146 cases in 2024, a 4.3% increase. (New York’s population of 8.5 million is about 10 times larger than San Francisco’s.)

Racial and ethnic disparities persist in both cities. In New York, 44% of newly diagnosed people were Black, and 41% were Latino. In San Francisco, Latino people accounted for the largest share of new diagnoses, at 32%, but Black people had the highest diagnosis rate relative to their small share of the population. Concerningly, San Francisco saw a near doubling of new diagnoses among cisgender women, from 14 to

26 cases. But still, gay and bisexual men account for a majority of new cases in both New York (65%) and San Francisco (83%).

Nationwide, the number of HIV diagnoses rose by about 1,000 in 2023, reaching 39,201, according to the CDC. New York and San Francisco were among the rst cities hard hit by AIDS in the 1980s, and both have a wellestablished infrastructure for HIV surveillance, prevention, testing and care. But the epidemic has since shi ed to the South, which now accounts for over half of new cases.

While these modest increases do not appear to herald a surge in new infections, they do show that progress toward ending the epidemic has stalled. Also, the latest numbers do not yet re ect the Trump administration’s cuts to HIV funding, which could lead to rising numbers in the future.

PREVENTION

In December, participants in South Africa received their rst doses in a clinical trial of a promising new HIV vaccine strategy, IAVI announced. Traditional HIV vaccine candidates have failed in trials to date, leading researchers to explore more sophisticated approaches. Germline targeting uses a series of vaccines to train immature B cells to produce broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) that target the virus. The IAVI G004 trial will examine safety and immune response to specialized immunogens designed to encourage production of bnAbs. The immunogens—dubbed OD-GT8 60mer (mRNA-1644), core-g28v2 60mer and N332-GT5 gp151—were developed at Scripps Research in California and are delivered using Moderna’s mRNA technology. In the new Phase I trial, conducted by African investigators, 96 healthy HIV-negative adults will receive various doses of the vaccine immunogens to identify the lowest doses that elicit an immune response while minimizing the risk of side e ects, such as skin reactions, seen in an earlier study.

TREATMENT

Weight Gain

People who switched from more complex antiretroviral regimens to Dovato (dolutegravir/ lamivudine) or Biktarvy (bictegravir/ tenofovir alafenamide/ emtricitabine) were about equally likely to maintain viral suppression, but those who used Dovato gained less weight, researchers reported at the European AIDS Conference in October. Some studies have found that people who start taking a potent integrase inhibitor or tenofovir alafenamide may put on more pounds. The Phase IV PASO DOBLE study enrolled more than 500 adults living with HIV in Spain who were on regimens that could be optimized—for example, those containing multiple daily pills or boosting agents. At 48 weeks, just six people (2.0%) who were randomly assigned to switch to Dovato and two people (1.4%) assigned to Biktarvy had a viral load of 50 or higher. At 96 weeks, 0.4% and 1.1%, respectively, had detectable HIV. Dovato, however, was associated with less weight gain than Biktarvy (about 2 pounds versus 5 pounds on average) and fewer drugrelated adverse events.

CURE

Immunotherapy

An immunotherapy combination may help maintain HIV remission a er stopping antiretrovirals, a recent study shows. HIV inserts its genetic blueprints into human cells, establishing a long-lasting reservoir that makes a true cure nearly impossible, but experimental approaches may help limit viral rebound a er treatment interruption, known as a functional cure. A small clinical trial tested a therapeutic vaccine, two broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) and le tolimod, a toll-like TLR9 agonist that boosts immune response. Researchers previously reported that seven of the 10 participants had delayed viral rebound to lower-thanexpected levels a er treatment interruption, including one who is maintaining viral control four years later. Robust proliferation of activated CD8 killer T cells was correlated with lower viral load. While delayed viral rebound is expected with bnAbs, the slower rebound rate and ability to sustain a low viral load for several months suggest the vaccine and immunemodulating drug may have additional e ects.

CONCERNS

Gonorrhea Meds

The Food and Drug Administration approved two oral medications for gonorrhea in December, the rst new classes of antibiotics for the sexually transmitted infection in decades. Gepotidacin (brand name Blujepa) and zoli odacin (Nuzolvence) were approved to treat uncomplicated urogenital gonorrhea in adolescents and adults. Gonorrhea can cause painful urination and genital discharge, and it increases the likelihood of acquiring or transmitting HIV; if le untreated, it can lead to serious complications, including chronic pain and infertility. The Phase III EAGLE-1 trial, which enrolled more than 600 participants, showed that 93% of people randomized to receive gepotidacin were cured, as were 91% of those who received standard treatment. Another Phase III trial with more than 900 participants—22% of whom were living with HIV—found that 91% of those who received zoli odacin and 96% of those on standard treatment were cured. The recent approvals help meet an urgent need, as gonorrhea is increasingly resistant to existing drugs.

IN THIS FIRST-PERSON ESSAY, LONG-TERM HIV SURVIVOR

SHERRI LEWIS, 71, RECOUNTS THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME—

FROM TOP 40 POP

SINGER

TO WISE STORYTELLER.

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!

New York City in the early ’80s percolated with artistic energy. As a talented, vivacious young singer with drive, Sherri Lewis thrived in the era’s whirlwind of cultures and creativity. She partied and performed with music and fashion icons and fronted the band Get Wet, singing their 1981 hit, “Just So Lonely,” on TV’s American Bandstand and Solid Gold (through a 2026 lens, the band’s videos recall a mash-up of Amy Winehouse and early Cyndi Lauper). Also during the early ’80s, a mysterious killer was taking root in the city: the AIDS epidemic. Lewis found herself in the center of this too. After getting a blood test for her marriage license, she learned her status on April 12, 1987, her 33rd birthday. Fast-forward nearly four decades: Last year, Lewis celebrated what would have been

unthinkable—her 71st birthday. She first graced our cover in May 2008 for the feature “HIV: Behind the Music” as she starred in the hit HIV-themed podcast Straight Girl in a Queer World. Lewis was profiled again in a 2016 article, “One Down, One to Go,” as she celebrated being cured of hepatitis C (you can find those articles in the POZ online archives). In the following essay, Lewis recounts a lifetime of insights as an artist, a woman, a recovering addict, an advocate and all-around powerhouse long-term survivor.

—Trent Straube

IAM NOW 71. I’M IN DISBELIEF AND PROUD TO have made it to this age. So many didn’t. I’ve counted days, months, years and hours just to cope with the death sentence I was handed in 1987 when I was diagnosed HIV positive on my 33rd birthday. It was just weeks before my most coveted day—my wedding day. Getting married was my biggest dream—that and getting a record deal. By 1987, I had already had, as Warhol would say, my 15 minutes of fame. While I wasn’t famous, I was always popular— and talented. At 5 years old, I was on the TV show Romper Room and other kiddie shows. And by 1979, my dreamboat bisexual boyfriend Zecca and I had a band, Get Wet. I was the lead singer with the stage name Sherri Beachfront, complete with a beach-ball pocketbook and an endless supply of Betsey Johnson colored crinolines, bustiers, gloves and windowpane tights! This was New York City, in the dangerous and colorful East Village. Lou Reed was in the house at our first gig at Max’s Kansas City and asked us to open for him at Columbia University. We did! What a magical time! What I wouldn’t give for that energy now—and to jump around nonstop in very high heels!

Neil Bogart, who signed Donna Summer, the Village People and Joan Jett, came to our show and introduced us to superstar producer and multiple Grammy winner Phil Ramone. That night we went to see Billy Joel, who was produced by Ramone. Bogart courted us with an offer at his new label, Boardwalk Records, and we were off to the races. I swear we made that record out of cocaine, which no one thought was addictive then! By 1981, we had a Top 40 hit single, “Just So Lonely,” and two MTV videos. We appeared on American Bandstand, Solid Gold and The Merv Griffin Show. And we had a European promotional tour, including TV shows.

Predictably, the drugs took their toll. Zecca and I broke up. The record company went bankrupt. And by 1983, I was strung out and homeless, giving our dog, Spliff, to other addicts to care for as I crawled into Straight & Narrow, a church-funded program for addicts located in Paterson, New Jersey. No touchy-feely stuff there. It was combative and punishing. It was a population mostly of men who had done time. There were only about 15 women. Two were white, one was Jewish. Guess which one. I volunteered to be there. I was desperate to be clean and sober and get back to performing.

People began getting sick, but I was focused on going to 12-step programs. Back in New York, I got a job at Betsey Johnson’s boutique because she knew me. Then I picked up a Christmas job at Macy’s. A friend of mine brought in her friend, George, from Cambridge, Massachusetts. I was wearing a dark brown wig to cover my purple hair courtesy of Manic Panic on St. Marks Place. I was nervous and talking a mile a minute, but he got my phone number and called. I was a miracle on 34th Street!

By 1986, I was clean and straight. No sex, booze, pills, injectables, cocaine or heroin. Just cigarettes. And the love story of George and I began. He had a 15-year-old son. We all hit it off. I became a regular on the Boston–New York shuttle, adapting to my New England life, auditioning while in New

“I WAS POPULAR AND TALENTED. BY 1987, I ALREADY HAD MY 15 MINUTES OF FAME.”

York and going to 12-step meetings. Then we got engaged!

At this time, I got a call from a friend’s mother. She was crying. She said her daughter Laurie was very sick—they didn’t know what was wrong with her—and could I visit? Laurie and I had briefly shared my apartment. I remembered her having high fevers, rashes and hospital emergency runs only to be told to take aspirin and stay in bed. At the height of AIDS, that’s what they told this bright young woman. When I went to see her at the hospital, I discovered she was on an AIDS ward. A basket next to her door had a gown, masks and gloves for you to put on to protect yourself before entering her isolated room, and a sign on the door read: “CAUTION: Body Fluids”!

Laurie was so skinny I barely recognized her. Her mother was sitting in a corner wearing dark sunglasses. “We know what she has,” her mom said, “but we’re not going to talk about it.” Laurie was waving her arms in the air as if to catch something, hallucinating from a brain infection, her eyes unfocused. I stayed the day but was overwhelmed.

Back in Cambridge, when I went to get a blood test for my marriage license, I asked for an AIDS test, which was brandnew then. The doctor didn’t see the need. “You’re a female! No one tests positive here! This is Massachusetts!” Three weeks later, with my wedding invitations in the mail, my gown being made and a yacht reserved in New York Harbor for the special day, the doctor called and said, “I’m so sorry. Your test results are positive.” I dropped to my knees. The doctor requested I come to the hospital and talk about my HIV.

I called George and said, “It’s bad news. You need to come home.” He cried and raged behind a closed door yelling at G-d.

We went to the hospital and met the doctor. I asked, “When will I get sick? How far has this disease progressed?” “I don’t know,” he said. “What can I do?” I asked, trying to control my shaking. “Take good care of your health.” What does that even mean? He shook my hand, wished me good luck and walked out of the room. I was the first person he ever told they were HIV positive.

I was fortunate that I landed in Cambridge, where some of the best HIV specialists were launching their careers. I met my doctor there during her residency. She’s now a top HIV specialist at the Clinical AIDS Research and Education (CARE) Center in Los Angeles, where I go today. We’ve walked this parallel path together for all these many years.

Clockwise from top: Lewis with Brenda Bergman in a 1979 promo for Max’s Kansas City in New York; with her band, Get Wet, which scored a Top 40 hit in 1981; opposite: a photo shoot for Romper Room

In Cambridge, I saw a psychiatrist who was trained to work with the terminally ill. In one of my sessions, she asked if I’d be willing to meet with a housewife who had AIDS and was afraid to leave her home except for her therapy. She had never met another woman with HIV. The following week, we met in my doctor’s office. I was heartbroken for this mother who trembled while clutching her bag. I simply shared my HIV story with her. She was quiet, withdrawn and terrified. I’ve thought of her through the years—how brave she was and so alone.

I shared about testing HIV positive immediately! I was so frightened that I had to share my status in my 12-step group. They embraced me and told me I was going to be all right. I needed to share it as soon as possible in the hope it could help others. Some people whispered in my ear that they were positive too. One of those people, Denis, was already educating about HIV in schools. He encouraged me to do the same, so I went to a training session at Boston Living Center. One day, I got a call from Denis. He was very sick and couldn’t make his speaking commitment. He asked me if I would do it for him. That was my first speaking engagement. Denis died just weeks after. I’ve now done hundreds

over these years. Every time I’d speak at one, I’d share about Denis. I also share about my bisexual boyfriend in the band, my IV drug use and my history of sexual abuse that started when I was molested as a teenager.

My husband tested negative, which was a huge relief, but he was in and out of rage. We were not going to have children. We separated. I got my own place—George was supportive—and I worked as an AIDS counselor through a program at Harvard University. I performed with a theater troupe educating about substance abuse and HIV prevention, and before I knew it, I wrote and performed my own story: Life is a Beach. I got to sing with the Boston Gospel Choir. My final performance in Boston

was with them at the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade, which I loved.

We got divorced, and I got a boyfriend. We were together for seven years—and it even included sex, unlike my marriage! My health was stable. With no effective HIV meds, I got into Chinese herbs, acupuncture, vitamin C and macrobiotics, and the gym replaced dance classes. Life was good.

It was just a matter of time before my asymptomatic run ended. My T-cell count dropped from 750 to 230. I had fatigue, and a rash appeared just as the new HIV drugs, commonly known as the cocktail, came out. My cocktail was three times a day—a total of 15 pills a day with food. It was toxic, but my T cells returned. Progress was moving rapidly thanks to the activists. Months later, my medications changed to only twice a day, but the side effects were miserable. My dancer’s body morphed as I developed a belly and skinny arms and facial wasting. But med improvements have now led me to a regimen of one pill a day and less lipodystrophy. I’m looking for that vaccine!

I broke up with my boyfriend and needed a change, so I moved to Los Angeles in 2000. Dating while being HIV positive was no good. Eventually, after the pain of being rejected or hearing something derogatory, I just stopped. But I still longed to get pregnant and

STORIES:

The AIDS Monument

November 16, 2025, marked a milestone for the Los Angeles HIV community. That was the o cial unveiling of STORIES: The AIDS Monument, a 7,000-square-foot outdoor plaza in West Hollywood Park. The monument includes engraved quotes, 147 bronze pillars whose tips illuminate like a candlelight vigil and a collection of curated oral stories and events documenting the history of the HIV epidemic. Long-term survivor Sherri Lewis, a former Top 40 singer turned storyteller, not only attended the ceremony but actually helped make the monument a

have a family of my own. It was depressing. But I connected with a small HIV group called Women at Risk in Culver City. They had a speakers bureau with few engagements. I quickly got to work on expanding that. Soon we were booking several speaking engagements a week, and our trainings were well attended.

Also in the early 2000s, I hosted a podcast— Straight Girl in a Queer World, for the LGBTQ cable network Here TV— that was all about HIV and AIDS. I did 60 episodes. In one of them, I interviewed Sheryl Lee Ralph [the acclaimed HIV advocate best known for Broadway’s Dreamgirls and TV’s Abbott Elementary]. We became fast friends. She invited me to sing at her DIVAS Simply Singing! event in 2008 to raise HIV awareness. It was a thrill! There are always so many fabulous divas, such as Patti LaBelle and Jennifer Hudson, at her annual fundraisers. She invited me again and gave me a Divas Award. When I was sick with cancer a few years ago, she called me up at the hospital. What a friend!

In recent years, I joined the board for STORIES: The AIDS Monument in West Hollywood. It was unveiled in time for World AIDS Day last year. Board members continue to stay

Long-term survivors Sherri Lewis and Phill Wilson in LA reality by serving on the board. “My purpose was to represent HIV-positive women,” she tells POZ. “It’s important to keep the stories alive, and it is my only footprint on this earth to show I was here and I count.” She recalls chatting with fellow long-term survivor Phill Wilson, the former CEO of the Black AIDS Institute. “We were in the green room having some food and drinks before the event started, and I told him, ‘My body aches. I think I need to change my meds.’ To which he replied, ‘Honey, we just got old!’” —TS

involved through the One Institute. It’s the country’s oldest active LGBTQ organization and creates tours and storytelling events at the monument.

At 71, I’ve made it through COVID-19, hepatitis C, colon cancer, homelessness and multiple losses, and I’m currently caring for my 95-year-old mother, who has dementia. I am grateful for this incredible life and blessed I can remember it.

To be handed a death sentence on your birthday doesn’t make sense. But almost 40 years later, I see it as a gift, because I was able to help others.

When I think back to my golden days in Cambridge, I remember my therapist’s beautiful Victorian house, where her peaceful office was located. I remember the time I was getting ready to write her a check and she stopped me. “Today, it’s on the house,” she said. “It’s our last visit before you move to California. When I took you on I was supposed to help you to come to terms with dying, but all you ever wanted to talk about was life! Now go live it!” I went back to my car and wiped my tears.

Life is grand. Q

Hyacinth provides HIV services at multiple locations in New Jersey. New

Keeping Hope Alive

FOR 40 YEARS, HYACINTH AIDS FOUNDATION HAS BEEN AN HIV-SERVICES

POWER PLAYER IN NEW JERSEY, A STATE HISTORICALLY HIGHLY IMPACTED BY THE EPIDEMIC. FOR ITS STAFF AND CLIENTS, IT’S ALSO A FAMILY.

BY TIM MURPHY

IN 1999, AFTER HER HUSBAND DIED OF AIDS-RELATED causes, Migdalia Morales, who was herself diagnosed with HIV in 1985, moved from Virginia to New Jersey to be near her daughter. Almost immediately, she craved peer support. “I always try to find a group wherever I am because I need to feel like I belong,” she says. A little research led her to Hyacinth AIDS Foundation, an HIV and AIDS services nonprofit founded the same year she was diagnosed. After an intake at the agency, which had called her a cab to get her there, she joined a weekly support group for Jerseyans living with HIV. Twenty-six years later, she still attends it!

Every Tuesday at Hyacinth’s Trenton office, Morales says about 10 to 13 folks “sit down and talk and help each other. It’s a family thing. It’s diverse— we have males, females, LGBTQ. It doesn’t matter— we’re all one.” Before her mom died in 2018, Morales would take her to the meeting. Recently, she says, the group has been helping her cope with her daughter’s severe depression, anxiety and need for brain surgery to treat fluid buildup. “Everyone in the group’s always asking me, ‘How’s she doing?’ or saying, ‘She’s gonna come out of it OK’ or ‘God’s got you.’”

In addition to hitting her weekly support group, Morales serves on a committee of Hyacinth clients who advise the agency on its direction, attends an online peer group that meets Wednesday nights, started a Hyacinth game night that meets the last Thursday of the month (“I love Uno”) and attends a monthly knitting class (“We even got guys doing it, including a staffer”). The agency has also helped her with housing-related red tape. And she loves Hyacinth’s annual summer picnic for staff, clients and loved ones held at a park in New Brunswick.

“Nobody ever has a sour face” at Hyacinth, she says. “They always greet you with open arms.”

She’s not the only one of the agency’s roughly 1,500 regular clients who feels that way. Much of that Hyacinth love was on display at the organization’s 40th anniversary gala last November at the Hilton in Short Hills, New Jersey. The agency said the fundraiser drew more than 200 guests and raised about $70,000 (to add to its $12 million annual operating budget).

The event honored the statuesque Dominique Jackson, who played Elektra Abundance on the TV show Pose, as well as New Jersey Assemblywoman Shanique Speight, who represents Newark. Speight says she was moved by testimonials at the gala from many Hyacinth employees who had begun as clients. “When you look at Newark, an underserved area, the resources and ability to fight stigma against HIV/AIDS that Hyacinth offers are very important,” she says. “People know they have an organization to lean on when it comes to health.”

At the gala, Kathy Ahearn-O’Brien, Hyacinth’s executive director since 1999, said from the stage: “We will not relive the 1980s. We will fight to keep our doors open for another 40 years. We will keep pushing forward for every client, every advocate, every person who deserves to live free from stigma and fear.”

Her words earned a standing ovation. But if Jersey’s first and still most prominent HIV and AIDS organization is feeling strong as it passes the four-decade mark, it—like countless such agencies nationwide—still faces the herculean challenge of providing for its clients living with HIV and preventing new infections at a time when President Trump’s

second administration has all but abandoned its first-term pledge to end the epidemic in the United States. What’s more, Republicans in Congress are slashing health coverage, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is abandoning prevention initiatives with mind-boggling speed. Can Hyacinth, named for a flower that blooms in early spring, symbolizing rebirth, keep hope alive in the immediate years to come?

THE EARLY DAYS

By 1985, New York City had already founded several organizations to address AIDS, foremost among them Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), which benefited from both the wealth and volunteer time of a legion of gay men and their allies in the face of a new disease that was devastating that community. One woman who had several friends at GMHC was

Margaret Nichols, PhD, known as Dr. Margie, a Jersey City lesbian who ran a queer-serving psychotherapy practice. She was watching her own queer community in the Garden State as well as people who used injection drugs—often straight, Black or Hispanic—get clobbered by the new disease.

Clockwise from top left:

Hyacinth’s 40th anniversary gala; Hyacinth at AIDS Walk New York; at North Jersey Pride

“I’d already watched two of my own staffers die from AIDS,” recalls Nichols, still a practicing therapist, “and my colleagues and I felt like it was our obligation to do something.” Additionally, she says, GMHC was being overwhelmed with help requests from New Jersey, which it simply couldn’t handle.

Her friend, the pioneering gay New York City therapist Michael Shernoff, MSW, who died in 2008, helped Nichols

arrange for folks at GMHC to train her and other Jerseyans to become volunteer hotline workers and “buddies”—a concept GMHC pioneered that involved pairing individuals with AIDS-related illnesses with a good Samaritan to help them with daily tasks and provide friendship and company. A section of Nichols’s own therapy office served as Hyacinth’s first headquarters. The group was funded by a $15,000 grant from the New Jersey government and some private donations. Nichols was joined in her work by others, including Bill Singer, a gay Jersey lawyer who started Hyacinth’s legal department and traveled to people’s sickbeds to help them write wills.

“When I look back on my life, Hyacinth is one of the things I consider a huge accomplishment, because it was so needed,” says Nichols. She helmed the agency until 1989, by which time she’d fought bitterly but successfully with the state of New Jersey for the additional funding that allowed Hyacinth to open sites in Newark and New Brunswick and hire more staff. Among the services that Hyacinth set up at that time, she says, was sending people into pediatric wards to care for infants who’d been born with AIDS and seldom lived long.

As both the epidemic in Jersey and the agency grew (it currently has eight sites statewide with 120 staffers total), Hyacinth benefited in the mid-’90s from the arrival of Axel Torres Marrero, a Puerto Rico– and New York City–raised young gay man who’d been involved in ACT UP NY. After attending Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, he was hired in Hyacinth’s prevention department. Under the mentorship of Hyacinth’s executive director at the time, Riki Jacobs (who died in 2009), Marrero quickly became a lobbying powerhouse for the agency and—by extension—for the entire HIV community of New Jersey. “Riki quickly realized that my brain was geared to policy,” says Marrero, who has been Hyacinth’s policy director since 2004.

An early win was expanding disability benefits in Jersey for people living with AIDS, followed by preventing the mandatory HIV testing of people in New Jersey prisons. But Torres Marrero says his greatest victory was finally getting needle exchange—distribution of clean needles to prevent the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C via contaminated syringes—passed in the state in 2007, after a long battle. “I have addiction in my family,” he says, so that triumph meant a lot to him.

Since then, he says, wins have included raising the income

eligibility cap for the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) as well as constantly getting new HIV and other meds onto the state’s ADAP formulary.

Asked what his 30 years at Hyacinth have meant to him, Torres Marrero chokes up and says, “Other people I know struggle with their passion not matching the work they do. I don’t. I want to do this.” And of the agency itself: “I’m Latin, which means that family means a great deal to me, and this place really is a family—where I get to be that weird analytical person who’s still a bulldog and gets shit done.”

TOUGH TIMES AHEAD

Ahearn-O’Brien shares Torres Marrero’s passion for the work. She says that when she was coming out as a lesbian in the ’80s, “my community was dying, and I thought, What is going on here?” Eager to help as well as “work in a place where I could be who I am,” she left the corporate world and went to Hyacinth in the late ’90s as a part-time worker on the agency’s AIDS Walk event and climbed her way up what she calls “the back of the house kind of stuff”—finance, HR, operations—until she succeeded Riki Jacobs in 2009.

She remembers a moment from early in her Hyacinth years: “A woman who worked in prevention was crying, and when I asked her what was wrong, she told me she’d just found out that a client of hers was found dead in a doorway, outside in the cold. And in that moment, my life changed, because you don’t go back from that. Once your life is about providing comfort and serving, I don’t see how you walk away.”

money, and there’s no way the state is going to make that up.” Torres Marrero echoes her worry. “I have never in my life seen this level of coordinated assault and malice” from the federal government “against Black and brown people, LGBTQ people and poor people,” he says. “And I’m an ACT UP veteran!” Even if Congress preserves funding, he says, he can’t breathe a sigh of relief, because the Trump administration has demonstrated its willingness to choke back money appropriated by Congress.

Says Ahearn-O’Brien: “I’ve been saying to my team, ‘Look, I’m gonna have to say things publicly that will scare you, like that we may have to shut our doors.’ I tell them, ‘I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I can tell you we’re gonna fight like hell.’ In my mind, HIV protesters are the best protesters in the world.”

STILL A FAMILY AFFAIR

“HYACINTH HAS GIVEN ME SUPPORT, STABILITY AND POSITIVITY.”

Despite uncertain times, Hyacinth goes on providing not just meat-and-potatoes services but a happy home away from home for its clients. Take Conneil J. Gavin, 65, of New Brunswick, a gay Black man who recently retired from his near decade-long role as chair of the HIV/AIDS Planning Council of Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon counties. When he was diagnosed with HIV by a county health worker in 2006, she sent him straight to Hyacinth, where that very day he joined the psychosocial support group.

And that, she says, includes now, a time when a far-right GOP Congress, egged on by President Trump, has toughened Medicaid eligibility in a way that experts say will knock millions nationwide off the program. It’s also signaled it wants to decimate the CDC’s HIV prevention, testing and surveillance dollars and has eyed deep cuts to parts of the HIV-serving Ryan White CARE Act, including housing, food assistance and help for substance use and mental health issues.

“The bottom line,” says Ahearn-O’Brien, “is that nothing’s changed for us since Trump came back in.” She’s grateful, she says, that New Jersey joined an 18-state lawsuit against Trump’s executive order withholding federal funding for anything deemed DEI (concerning the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion). “That’s protected us,” she says, “but it doesn’t mean we don’t have whiplash” from the administration’s relentless assault on everything Hyacinth does and the people the agency does it for—LGBTQ (especially transgender), low-income and Black and Hispanic people.

And more threats loom. With CDC prevention funding on the chopping block, “I could lose half my agency budget,” she says, “because I think New Jersey gets $30 million of that

“I was immediately welcomed and supported so I didn’t even have an opportunity to sit and grieve over being positive,” he says. His Christian upbringing had always made him feel “wrong” about being gay and that he would go to hell. “But everyone I met that day at Hyacinth,” gay and straight alike, “reassured me that I wasn’t wrong, and they filled me with positivity.”

He still participates in Hyacinth’s weekly men’s support group, which has been held online since the emergence of COVID-19, but he longs for the in-person meetings to resume. And along with Torres Marrero and other Hyacinth folks, he has attended the annual AIDSWatch event in Washington, DC, where people living with HIV and their advocates from across the country lobby lawmakers for continued HIV funding.

Ask him what role Hyacinth has played in his life, and Gavin answers, “to educate me, support me and celebrate me. Because whenever I go into their office, everyone greets me with excitement. ‘Glad to see you!’ they call out.” Just like the bar in Cheers, he admits, “it’s where everybody knows your name.”

Migdalia Morales agrees with him. “Hyacinth has given me support, stability and positivity,” she says. “When you go in there for the very first time, you’ll feel welcome. It’s like my second home and my second family.” Q

AIDS 2026, the 26th International AIDS Conference, taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and virtually on 26-31 July 2026, comes at a crucial time for the HIV response.

In the face of an unprecedented funding crisis and major cutbacks to HIV programmes, the world’s largest conference on HIV and AIDS will unite people living with HIV, researchers, policy makers, healthcare professionals, funders, media and communities.

BY JAY LASSITER

A Mother’s Voice

Heather O’Connor learned she was HIV positive in 2016 at age 22.

“I was at lunch with coworkers and got a phone call and excused myself. I was diagnosed with HIV outside Chipotle,” says O’Connor. “I went around back and collapsed on the ground by the dumpsters. I just remember saying to myself in my head, Just nd the sun, Heather. Go nd the sun.”

O’Connor learned that despite having a “very, very high” viral load, she had multiple treatment options.

“I was told by the doctor that I was really lucky,” she explains. “It was strange to be diagnosed with HIV and then be called lucky. I wasn’t very educated about HIV treatment or the privilege that I have as a white woman. At the time, I didn’t feel so lucky.”

O’Connor found her voice as an advocate for people living with HIV a er another life-changing event.

“Owning my voice happened when I became a mother,” she explains. “When I became pregnant and realized that I was going to be raising a human being in this world that’s on re, it was my responsibility and my passion to create safe spaces—not just for my children but within myself—to know that I can be safe to be me and that I can come home to myself.”

O’Connor is the program coordinator at The Reunion Project, an alliance of long-term HIV survivors, where she also juggles communications and administrative duties.

“Part of the work I do with The Reunion Project is hosting community convenings around the United States for long-term and lifetime survivors of HIV,” she says.

She’s also a communications specialist with the National Working Positive Coalition, another group dedicated to empowering people living with HIV.

O’Connor has devoted her life to ending the stigma regarding women and mothers living with HIV. Her children, Laura and Zephyr, are 4 and 6, respectively. Both are HIV negative.

“They’re the lights of my life,” she adds. “When I was rst diagnosed, my rst question was, ‘Am I going to die?’ My second question was, ‘Can I be a mother?’ When I found out that I was pregnant, I just knew it was going to be OK.”

Like many mothers with HIV, she had to decide whether or not to breastfeed. Through her HIV doctor, she learned about the PROMISE studies in Africa that found that when a mother with HIV is undetectable, the risk of transmission of the virus to her child is less than 1%. That study demonstrated that even when a mother had a detectable vial load, the bene ts of breastfeeding outweigh the risk of infant mortality.

“The lactation consultant had never heard of a person living with HIV breastfeeding before and chose not to help me,” she recalls. “I started my baby on formula, and in the middle of the night, a nurse came to check on me, and I said, ‘I’d like to breastfeed my baby and to be supported in doing that.’”

She’s glad to be an example for other women living with HIV who might wish to become pregnant.

“By sharing that I was successfully breastfeeding, people would nd me and reach out and say, ‘I want to do this too. How do I do this?’” Q

Heather O’Connor lives in Lexington, Virginia, with her two children.

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