Source: Radio New Zealand
This year also marks 40 years since the Burnett Foundation (formerly the New Zealand AIDS Foundation) opened its doors. 123RF
More than four decades after the first New Zealander was diagnosed with HIV, medical advances have completely changed the face of the once-fatal virus, but one man living with it says he doesn’t “think that the HIV stigma has changed radically”
Rodrigo Olin German was barely out of his teens when a blood test result threw his life into turmoil, and he faced what he thought was a death sentence.
“It was horrible, I have to say, it was very shocking and devastating for me at that time because I was just a child. I was 20 years old.”
He had just tested positive for HIV.
“I sat down and they said to me, ‘well, your results have come back positive, and this means you have got to make some changes in your life. We cannot really tell you how long you are going to live. You need to stop having sex, you really need to avoid crowded places, and you need to constantly be seeing your doctor’.”
He tells The Detail, there was no compassion, no support, and no hope. He felt like an inconvenience, with staff making it known they were having to delay their lunch break to tell him the devastating news.
He left the medical clinic in tears, fearing he would die.
That was in Mexico, 22 years ago. Today, Olin German is living in New Zealand and working at the Burnett Foundation Aotearoa (formerly the New Zealand AIDS Foundation), helping Kiwis who have been diagnosed with HIV.
“People with HIV, we work, we live, we love, we travel, we are active members of society,” he says.
Olin German is sharing his personal experience on World AIDS Day. This year also marks 40 years since the Burnett Foundation opened its doors.
What began as a grassroots network of volunteers has grown into a national force for education, health, and human rights.
Over the decades, the Foundation has led memorable high-impact campaigns: including Get It On!, Love Cover Protect, Love Your Condom, and Ending HIV, which have helped educate and support both patients and families.
“Information is power, and we need to give that to people because that can really change the reality for people living with HIV,” Olin German says.
But it should be remembered that 40 years ago, people living with HIV and AIDS in New Zealand faced intense fear, discrimination, and isolation. Early activists risked their lives simply by speaking out.
Today, things are very different – but the stigma hasn’t vanished.
“To be honest, I don’t think that the HIV stigma has changed radically,” says Olin German, who has been verbally abused by people he knows after speaking publicly about his diagnosis or when disclosing it before entering a relationship.
“The times when people have reacted negatively, it has been pretty bad, like ‘why are you having sex?’, ‘you should die’, ‘you are spreading the disease around’. They are calling me very despicable names.”
He says fear and misunderstanding remain powerful barriers: to testing, to treatment, and to honest conversations about HIV.
He wants people to know that with the right medication and education, HIV becomes undetectable, then untransmittable, which is known as U=U.
“The amount of virus is so low in the bloodstream that we can’t pass HIV to our sexual partners, even if we don’t use condoms … so, we are not a risk to anyone.”
And he says prevention has come a long way over the past 40 years. Condom campaigns, testing programs, and the availability of PrEP, an HIV prevention pill, have all contributed to fewer new local infections.
Last year, 95 people were newly diagnosed with HIV here, and that number is tracking to be even lower this year.
In total, about 3500 people live with HIV in New Zealand today, that’s mainly gay men, but also straight men and women.
Rodrigo says what would help those who have tested positive is a better range of HIV medication, like an injection given every two months, which is available in Australia but not here. In New Zealand, people take daily pills.
Burnett Foundation CEO Liz Gibbs agrees. She’s also campaigning for better funding, community engagement, and equitable access to testing and prevention.
The Foundation has, today, also announced an innovation challenge for entrepreneurs and innovators to come up with AI and med-tech solutions to help New Zealand eliminate local HIV transmission by 2030.
“We have made amazing progress over the last 40 years, since the Burnett Foundation was established,” Gibbs tells The Detail. “However, we have still got quite a bit of work to do to achieve the HIV action plan aspiration of getting to zero transmissions by 2030 and eradicating stigma and discrimination.”
On this World AIDS Day, she says the Burnett Foundation Aotearoa is both celebrating 40 years of activism, advocacy, and impact, and challenging New Zealanders not to become complacent.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand