As
a person who has lived with AIDS since 1990, my personal experience is
that I was extremely ill until I got on the right regimen of HIV
medications. I was too ill to work, and was on disability for 12 years.
In 2002, thanks to antiretroviral medications, I was well enough to
return to full time work again, and continue to work full time and stay
healthy today.
Good diet and nutrition have also
contributed to my health, but I give the major credit to finding the
right combination of HIV medications. Some that I tried proved to be
too toxic for my system, but with plenty of choices available, my
doctors and I have found the right "cocktail" to keep me in good
health. On the one occasion that I did go off medication, my health
began to plummet again until I started the medicines back again.
I'll
leave it to the scientists to debate what causes HIV and AIDS. My
experience, however, has been that the medicines that fight the
HIV virus are responsible for my current good health. Simple logic
tells me that the virus must be what has caused me to be sick. —Harry Wingfield, Birmingham, AL
