Yes, People Like Me Do Get HIV
Yes, People Like Me Do Get HIV
POZ editor Regan Hofmann discusses misperceptions still surrounding AIDS-and why anyone who’s ever had unprotected sex should be tested.
© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.
June 26, 2006 - A decade ago, Regan Hofmann was shocked to learn that she had contracted HIV—the virus that causes AIDS—from her boyfriend. Then a 28-year-old editor, Hofmann hardly fit the stereotype: she was a white, well-educated, straight divorcée in a monogamous relationship. Worried about the reaction she would get from friends and colleagues, she only revealed her status to her immediate family and to her boyfriends. Four years ago, she began recounting the reactions she got from those she disclosed her status to in an anonymous column for POZ, a health and lifestyle magazine for HIV-positive readers.
Six months ago, she stopped writing anonymously and decided to go public—very public—with her status. She became editor in chief of POZ, and made herself the cover girl of the April issue. Now, as POZ editor and member of the board of directors for the National Association of People with AIDS, she is working to spread the message to all Americans about the importance of getting tested. With June 27 designated as 2006 National HIV Testing Day, her message is taking on a special urgency. Hofmann spoke with NEWSWEEK's Karen Springen about her personal experience and why misperceptions about AIDS still persist among so many Americans. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: For four years, you wrote an anonymous column for POZ, disclosing your HIV positive status to a different person each issue and writing about the reaction. How does it feel to be very much not anonymous now?
Hofmann: Largely people have been supportive. [But] when I was on 'Good Morning America,' and I was asked whether or not I would consider having a child because the risk of transmission is less than 2 percent if you are under medical care and do the right things, one of the viewers wrote to me and said, 'How can you even take a 1 or 2 percent chance that you'd bring an HIV positive baby into the world?' At my age, the risk is greater that I'd bring a Down syndrome baby into the world, but I'm not going to get an email about that.
National HIV Testing Day is this week. Who should get tested?
Forty-eight percent of American adults report they've never been tested for HIV. Yet 25 percent of the more than 1 million HIV positive people don't know they have it. Who needs to be tested? Anyone who has ever had unprotected sex even once in their life. What we've seen happen in particular over the last five years is rising infection rates among those parts of the populace who believe they're not at risk. Those three big groups are women, teenagers and people over the age of 50. If you know your status, you can get treated if you have HIV. The sooner you get treated, the better your chances are. Those who test positive are less likely to communicate the disease to others if they know about their status and take protective measures that they might not ordinarily take.
Are you saying that even people who've been married for several years should get tested?
Unless you can prove definitively that your partner has been faithful to you. If you look at divorce rates and infidelity rates in this country and around the world, you cannot ignore the possibility that you have been exposed. I slept with someone twice and contracted the disease, and I knew him well, and he was from a good family.
You've said that your boyfriend [now dead] claimed he didn't know he had the virus, and you never knew how he got it. Do you think he was bisexual?
People want to think he was bisexual or a drug user. People are looking for the excuse so they can say, 'that won't happen to me.' He was as heterosexual as any heterosexual man I'd ever met. I can't fact check every moment of his life. It's very important for me to say that I contracted the disease from heterosexual sex because I want women to know that you can get this disease from the boy next door, or the boy you take home to mom an dad, where he's not a bad guy, and he's not bisexual and he didn't do drugs. This is not a gay disease. This is simple biology. The virus doesn't know whether you're gay or straight. The virus doesn't know anything about your lifestyle. It will go where it can find a host. It could be your grandmother, your friend who just got divorced and has slept with one other guy. It doesn't know what you are.
How much of a problem is stigma today? Does it keep many Americans from getting HIV tests?
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the epidemic, we've moved the dial in terms of treatment significantly forward. But if you look at where we are in terms of stigma and education and awareness, we're back in the early days of the disease. People still misperceive that they're not at risk. The perception is that it's in control in this country, yet it's not in control. The groups that are being disproportionately affected don't know, or the stigma is still so strong that they're not willing to disclose. It took me 10 years to choose to disclose my status.
You're an HIV positive person who comes from a different background than many POZ readers. How does that affect your choices as an editor?
I don't think you can say my background is different from many POZ readers. The misperception is that people like me don't get HIV. When I was diagnosed, my first support group was a group of gay, HIV-positive men. The things that affect people with HIV affect all people with HIV. The emotional concerns, the physical concerns, the need for support, the need for access to care and treatment. Handling the burden of the stigma and the shame and the emotional difficulty people have having the virus, and the physical and lifestyle concerns, are very similar. I'm writing for men and women, black and white, young and older, of all different walks of life, but we all have the same needs basically.
Are you dating anyone now? You told one interviewer that a man you'd started dating changed his phone number after you told him you were HIV positive.
That was a long time ago. I'd rather not comment on my personal life right now.
People morbidly joked that POZ would fail because its readers would literally die off. That hasn't proven to be true. Your circulation is at an all-time high—around 125,000 readers.
I think I'm the only person I know whose goal is to have my business go out of business! I'd really like to see the day when we could shut POZ's doors for the right reasons. That's not coming any time soon. We had 40,000 new infections last year. That's insane. This disease is entirely preventable. That's something people tend to forget.
Rock Hudson made AIDS a household word. Will it take another huge celebrity to die from this disease to get it back in the news?
I hope someone doesn't have to die to get it back in the news ... I'm not going to name the next AIDS hero. But I think anybody who stands up and makes people aware of the disease is wonderful.
POZ editor Regan Hofmann discusses misperceptions still surrounding AIDS-and why anyone who’s ever had unprotected sex should be tested.
© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.
June 26, 2006 - A decade ago, Regan Hofmann was shocked to learn that she had contracted HIV—the virus that causes AIDS—from her boyfriend. Then a 28-year-old editor, Hofmann hardly fit the stereotype: she was a white, well-educated, straight divorcée in a monogamous relationship. Worried about the reaction she would get from friends and colleagues, she only revealed her status to her immediate family and to her boyfriends. Four years ago, she began recounting the reactions she got from those she disclosed her status to in an anonymous column for POZ, a health and lifestyle magazine for HIV-positive readers.
Six months ago, she stopped writing anonymously and decided to go public—very public—with her status. She became editor in chief of POZ, and made herself the cover girl of the April issue. Now, as POZ editor and member of the board of directors for the National Association of People with AIDS, she is working to spread the message to all Americans about the importance of getting tested. With June 27 designated as 2006 National HIV Testing Day, her message is taking on a special urgency. Hofmann spoke with NEWSWEEK's Karen Springen about her personal experience and why misperceptions about AIDS still persist among so many Americans. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: For four years, you wrote an anonymous column for POZ, disclosing your HIV positive status to a different person each issue and writing about the reaction. How does it feel to be very much not anonymous now?
Hofmann: Largely people have been supportive. [But] when I was on 'Good Morning America,' and I was asked whether or not I would consider having a child because the risk of transmission is less than 2 percent if you are under medical care and do the right things, one of the viewers wrote to me and said, 'How can you even take a 1 or 2 percent chance that you'd bring an HIV positive baby into the world?' At my age, the risk is greater that I'd bring a Down syndrome baby into the world, but I'm not going to get an email about that.
National HIV Testing Day is this week. Who should get tested?
Forty-eight percent of American adults report they've never been tested for HIV. Yet 25 percent of the more than 1 million HIV positive people don't know they have it. Who needs to be tested? Anyone who has ever had unprotected sex even once in their life. What we've seen happen in particular over the last five years is rising infection rates among those parts of the populace who believe they're not at risk. Those three big groups are women, teenagers and people over the age of 50. If you know your status, you can get treated if you have HIV. The sooner you get treated, the better your chances are. Those who test positive are less likely to communicate the disease to others if they know about their status and take protective measures that they might not ordinarily take.
Are you saying that even people who've been married for several years should get tested?
Unless you can prove definitively that your partner has been faithful to you. If you look at divorce rates and infidelity rates in this country and around the world, you cannot ignore the possibility that you have been exposed. I slept with someone twice and contracted the disease, and I knew him well, and he was from a good family.
You've said that your boyfriend [now dead] claimed he didn't know he had the virus, and you never knew how he got it. Do you think he was bisexual?
People want to think he was bisexual or a drug user. People are looking for the excuse so they can say, 'that won't happen to me.' He was as heterosexual as any heterosexual man I'd ever met. I can't fact check every moment of his life. It's very important for me to say that I contracted the disease from heterosexual sex because I want women to know that you can get this disease from the boy next door, or the boy you take home to mom an dad, where he's not a bad guy, and he's not bisexual and he didn't do drugs. This is not a gay disease. This is simple biology. The virus doesn't know whether you're gay or straight. The virus doesn't know anything about your lifestyle. It will go where it can find a host. It could be your grandmother, your friend who just got divorced and has slept with one other guy. It doesn't know what you are.
How much of a problem is stigma today? Does it keep many Americans from getting HIV tests?
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the epidemic, we've moved the dial in terms of treatment significantly forward. But if you look at where we are in terms of stigma and education and awareness, we're back in the early days of the disease. People still misperceive that they're not at risk. The perception is that it's in control in this country, yet it's not in control. The groups that are being disproportionately affected don't know, or the stigma is still so strong that they're not willing to disclose. It took me 10 years to choose to disclose my status.
You're an HIV positive person who comes from a different background than many POZ readers. How does that affect your choices as an editor?
I don't think you can say my background is different from many POZ readers. The misperception is that people like me don't get HIV. When I was diagnosed, my first support group was a group of gay, HIV-positive men. The things that affect people with HIV affect all people with HIV. The emotional concerns, the physical concerns, the need for support, the need for access to care and treatment. Handling the burden of the stigma and the shame and the emotional difficulty people have having the virus, and the physical and lifestyle concerns, are very similar. I'm writing for men and women, black and white, young and older, of all different walks of life, but we all have the same needs basically.
Are you dating anyone now? You told one interviewer that a man you'd started dating changed his phone number after you told him you were HIV positive.
That was a long time ago. I'd rather not comment on my personal life right now.
People morbidly joked that POZ would fail because its readers would literally die off. That hasn't proven to be true. Your circulation is at an all-time high—around 125,000 readers.
I think I'm the only person I know whose goal is to have my business go out of business! I'd really like to see the day when we could shut POZ's doors for the right reasons. That's not coming any time soon. We had 40,000 new infections last year. That's insane. This disease is entirely preventable. That's something people tend to forget.
Rock Hudson made AIDS a household word. Will it take another huge celebrity to die from this disease to get it back in the news?
I hope someone doesn't have to die to get it back in the news ... I'm not going to name the next AIDS hero. But I think anybody who stands up and makes people aware of the disease is wonderful.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 11:08 AM
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