ABBY LANDY, 28:
HIV-POSITIVE’
‘I AM
‘I HAD STARTED seeing
a new person and after a few
weeks I got cold sores for the
first time. I went and got a
whole sexual health screen
and everything came back
negative, so they gave me
medication for the cold sores.
Over the space of a couple
of weeks, I continued to feel
more and more unwell and
had a rash that was spreadingquite rapidly, so I ended up
going back to the doctor and
that’s when I asked for a HIV
test. I’d done some Googling
and had convinced myself
that it was a possibility. The
response I got was, “Abby,
you’re a 23yearold hetero
sexual female in Australia;
it’s probably unnecessary
to do the test.” But I insisted.
The moment I found out
I was positive, I said to the
doctor, “No, I can’t live with
this”. I was terrified. It felt
like that sentence, “I’m sorry,
Abby, you’re HIVpositive”,
had destroyed my future and
my life as I knew it. As far as
I knew, it was still a death
sentence; the images I had
seen were of people dying.
I took quite a while to cometo terms with it, despite the
amazing support from my
family and friends. But you
know what? It’s been five
years and it hasn’t impacted
my life negatively at all. I’m
so fortunate to have been
diagnosed so shortly after
I contracted HIV, so I had
access to medication from
day one. The treatment for
HIV is just one pill, once
a day, and that is effective
enough to suppress the viral
load in my system.
The reaction I often get
when I reveal my positive
HIV status is surprise and
shock. There’s so much shame
and stigma associated with it
and people look at me and
think, How could she have been
at risk?. That’s a real issue
because everybody is at risk.
The H in HIV is for human.
It doesn’t discriminate.
What I want people to
know about HIV is that it’s
still out there, it still exists,
and it increasingly affects
heterosexual people in this
country. The reality now is
that if you’re tested regularly
and it’s identified early, you
can get on treatment and live
well. I have a partner at the
moment and he’s completely
supportive and accepting; my
relationship is normal and
HIV doesn’t come into play.
To someone who’s been
diagnosed with HIV, it feels
like a lifechanging event, and
it can be and it is. But it does
get better and get easier, and
living well with HIV is a real
possibility – I’m living proof
of that.’ >Abby’s made it her mission to bust
myths about the misunderstood virusCOSMO
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