Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1537666
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 JULY 2025 FEATURE Life after an HIV diagnosis: 'I don't Thomas*, a man in his 40s, was diagnosed with HIV 13 years ago. Ahead of Zero HIV Stigma Day on 21 candidly about what it means to live with HIV in Malta in 2025. THERE are 754 people known to be living with HIV in Malta, according to figures tabled in parliament last month—a 65% increase over five years. The number has risen every single year: 457 people were known to be living with HIV in 2020, 539 in 2021, 612 in 2022, 650 in 2023, and 696 in 2024. Thomas—not his real name— is one of the 754 known to be living with HIV in Malta today. "Things were very different when I was diagnosed. The way I found out was shocking. I was getting these really bad fevers, night sweats, feeling very weak, ill, you know, there were times when I couldn't sleep proper- ly," Thomas tells me as he re- calls the bad news he received 13 years ago. He explains that his body be- gan to shut down and that was when he decided to go to hos- pital to try and figure out what was wrong. "After a few days of running checks and receiving various diagnoses, I was lying in a hospital bed, not knowing what was going to happen to me," he tells me. After a couple of days, doc- tors decided to run an HIV test. It turned out positive. "I wasn't just HIV positive, I was actually AIDS positive, because my CD4 count was ridiculous- ly low, and the viral load was shockingly high. Basically, I was pretty much at risk of dy- ing," he says. However, he adds that al- though it was a shock, the diagnosis gave him hope, be- cause the uncertainty he had been living with was finally over. "I said, okay, this is some- thing maybe I can bounce back from," he recalls. After being diagnosed, Thom- as began taking antiretroviral medication, which came with its own challenges. The body required time to adjust, and at the time, the routine included taking six pills a day. "I work in finance. And it was very hard to come up with ex- cuses and explain why I was in hospital, not being able to return to the office and just simply say, 'look, this was the issue'," he says. The stigma Thomas felt pressure to hide his diagnosis due to the stig- ma surrounding HIV. He says it was an overwhelming task deciding who to confide in. The lack of supportive plat- forms or open dialogue around HIV made the experience even more isolating. The stigma made it feel like opening up could unleash unpredictable consequences, "like Pandora's box". Luckily, Thomas had a friend living abroad who had gone through a similar experience, and this person provided vital emotional support. However, he was unable to tell his par- ents on his own terms, because a discharge letter sent to his parents' address, where he was residing at the time, disclosed his condition. "She [his mother] opened it [the discharge letter], and that's how she found out the underlying reason for what made me ill. It was a shock for her, especially since she had a cousin who'd died from AIDS in the 1990s. However, I was fortunate enough that she reached out to my sister, who explained to her that things were different now." Thomas says that he was lucky because his family ac- cepted him without any hes- itation. Since then, he thinks of his diagnosis as something he has to live with and accept. However, it doesn't define him. "I didn't want it to be my life, my identity," he insists. Medicine has come a long way Thomas speaks about how life-changing it was when his medication went from six pills a day to just one. He described developing paranoia out of fear of missing his medication, and how it was constantly on his mind. Changing over to the one-pill-a-day medication was a "massive relief". However, he still worries about medicine shortages. "The hospital only gives us a supply for two months. And you can only refill a few days before you run out, which leaves people in fear of running out of medica- tion." This fear is not unfounded, as in 2020, Malta experienced a critical shortage of HIV medi- cation, leaving several individ- uals without their life-saving treatment. Furthermore, Thomas speaks about the stigma that still ex- ists. "I think it's down to a lack of education. Even just the stigma that only gay people can contract HIV. It's a pandemic that affects all genders, all sex- ual orientations, and all ages. No one is spared." 'We thought we were getting somewhere' Checkpoint Malta spokesper- son Jackie Roberts expresses her frustration to MaltaToday over the Health Ministry's con- tinued inaction amid a con- cerning rise in HIV cases. She notes that as an NGO, they had placed hope in the launch of the Sexual Health Strategy and after more than a decade of waiting, they expected more decisive government action. The strategy was launched in December 2024 and covers the five-year period until 2030. Since then, the NGO has reached out to the ministry countless times, asking when Pre-Exposure Prophylax- is (PrEP) and Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) would be added to the national formu- lary list. However, they say they haven't received a concrete an- swer. "We've heard nothing concrete. There was talk of it being February, then July, and so on." PrEP is a preventive treatment aimed to minimise the risk of contracting HIV. PEP treat- ment is taken within the first 72 hours of suspected exposure to HIV and involves taking a 28-day course of antiretroviral medication to prevent the virus from establishing itself in the body. Not only was the introduction of PrEP and PEP listed in the strategy, it was also promised in the Labour Party manifesto ahead of the last general elec- tion. "We thought, when we sub- mitted our proposals during the consultation period, that we were being listened to. However, despite assurances from the ministry, we do not feel enough is being done to prevent new infections," Rob- erts says. She adds there isn't a clear path for people who want to get tested. "People don't know where to get tested. And when they do, there are delays and confusion. It's not easy for peo- ple who aren't experiencing symptoms to get tested." This is despite the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends getting tested for HIV at least once a year if you are sexually active. The WHO guidelines also sug- gest that those with increased risk factors, such as having multiple partners or engaging in unprotected sex should ben- efit from more frequent test- ing, such as every three to six File photo