Episode 35: Juan’s Journey to HIV and Back

March 18th, 2011

“Juan” (not his real name) was diagnosed “false-positive” in 2007 after a bout with fever, night sweats, and other severe flu-like symptoms. However, when doctors discovered he had been intimate with men, his diagnosis was changed to “true-positive”. It turns out that his symptoms were actually caused by his appendix rupturing, which was treated immediately, and eventually fully resolved. Educated in science, it took Juan some time to overcome what he had been taught about HIV and AIDS; but his research skills eventually led him to stop AIDS drugs after a few months. Four years later Juan remains in robust health, and has tested negative for HIV ever since.

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