Have you watched Channel 4’s It’s A Sin, the new drama from Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies? It chronicles the life of a group of young people who move to London in the early 1980s, just to find themselves in the midst of a growing HIV / AIDS crisis.
What I particularly liked was how it showed the women – friends, mothers, sisters – who were so involved, giving love and care to young men when they died.
It’s hard to see in parts, as it doesn’t move away from showing the tragedy of the time.
I watched it with interest because I caught the end of that period while training as a doctor in Central London in the late 1990s, and I have fond memories of people dying of AIDS.
Channel 4’s It’s A Sin (pictured) is the new drama from Doctor Who writer Russell T. Davies
I remember being on a ward around how a counselor gave the devastating news to a 20 – year – old – the age I was at the time – that he was positive, and that his weak immune system meant that a virus had caught his eyes and made him blind.
I remember breaking down, unbelievably, because he realized he was likely to die.
I have seen people die of horrible cancers and diseases.
One young man, just a few years older than me, got depressed due to a vague virus attacking his brain. Another died after a bread mold attacked his lungs. It was an awful time.
How everything has changed. Since then, there has been remarkable progress in the treatment and management of the HIV virus.
For the past 20 years we have been receiving medication that will support the immune system of the infected person and prevent AIDS and subsequent death. Fortunately, HIV / AIDS deaths are now very rare in this country.
Despite working in central London with high – risk groups such as sex workers and drug addicts, I have not seen anyone die off for years.
Dr Max (pictured) experienced life as a doctor in a London hospital in the late 1990s HIV / AIDS crisis
This trend has been so surprising that HIV / AIDS wards and special units have closed simply because the number of patients is no longer there to fill them.
This would have been an impossible dream for those who, in the 1980s and 1990s, watched in horror as loved ones fled and died while doctors stood up, unmolested. help.
What is really frightening is the speed with which HIV has been treated, and it has turned from a virus with a great fear of something that is now treatable and far from a death penalty.
In fact, studies have shown that for those who are now diagnosed with HIV, life expectancy is the same as someone without the virus. As regularly seen by a doctor, many have better health outcomes than the general population.
Medication also means that those with HIV can be ‘undetectable’, meaning they can’t give it away.
When I discussed this TV show with some of the young doctors at work, they really did not believe that things had been so bad back in the 1980s and 1990s.
They had no idea, and were surprised that a whole generation of young gay men had been treated so obscenely that they had been wiped out by the virus.
The problem, however, is that people’s attitudes have not kept pace with medical advances. The fear and prejudice from that moment is still present. It may not be so open now, but make no mistake, it runs through people’s perceptions of those who are HIV positive.
Those with HIV fear being rejected by family and friends and driven to work.
It remains an illness diminished in secrecy and shame, and this can have a profound effect on a patient’s well-being.
A 2018 report by Public Health England found that mental health is the main difference in quality of life for those with HIV compared to those without.
Many suffer greatly as a result of their fear of responding to their illness. Levels of depression in those with HIV are nearly ten times higher than in the general population, largely due to the stigma attached to the condition.
Now, when someone is diagnosed, the medical team often focuses on how to manage the social impact of the virus as well as – if not more than – the physical aspects.
The fear is reduced that this is the biggest problem for those who have just been diagnosed, not the virus itself.
Even in the gay community, there is still a lot of ignorance about HIV, and a lot of prejudice against those who are positive.
It is not uncommon for people to talk about being ‘clean’ to mean HIV negative, as if being positive would be something dirty, corrupt or polluting.
It is sad that treatment has come so far, and transformed the lives of people with this disease, but they still face so many obstacles.
We are now at the stage where society ‘s opinion, rather than the virus itself, makes HIV so frightening.
It is full time that people move on from the past, catch up with reality and end the prejudice against HIV for good.
INCLUSION IS NOT MADE TO YOUR OWN
If we think back to those dark days in the spring when the pandemic was taking hold, Captain Sir Tom Moore was an important symbol of challenge. His idea – reminding us that there will be brighter days, and to be calm and kind – was the real hope we all needed.
If we think back to those dark days in the spring when the pandemic was catching up, Captain Sir Tom Moore (pictured) was an important symbol of challenge
But I also thought he gave an editorial lesson on what we all have to offer no matter what age we are. It is easy for people in their middle years to accept that if they do not happen yet, it will not happen. I see this very much in patients. They fear that their careers have not gone off, or that they have not found love or made a difference to the world they wanted when they were young. They feel sad, upset, sometimes overwhelmed.
But there are plenty of people – like Sir Tom – whose lives are building at a different pace, who will achieve later in life. Remember: it’s never too late to make your mark.
- Lady Sophie Windsor, who is once married to the Queen’s cousin, Lord Frederick Windsor, and a supporter of the Home-School Support charity, has said that locking a ‘living hell’ for many poor children. She said they were suffering from a ‘pandemic’ of abuse and malnutrition. This is why I strongly support Mail ‘s home education initiative, Computers for Kids, which aims to deliver laptops and improve educational opportunities for the poorest children during lock – in time. . Good on Lady Sophie for speaking up for them.
PRESCRIBES DR MAX: SECOND-CHANCE PLANS
I love to surround myself with greenery, and if you are the same, check out the Greenhouse (theglasshouse.co.uk), which not only sells vegetables, but is doing a little good.
The social enterprise is giving prisoners a second chance by providing them with horticultural training in former UK prison greenhouses.
By purchasing the plants they cultivate, you will be supporting this wonderful campaign.