AIDS and HIV

Some people say that once you've been diagnosed the challenge makes life more vital, better even. On other days the same lips speak of devastation - a holocaust in which lovers and friends are lost, children are orphaned and the future is uncertain.

There are at least two different languages about HIV and Aids, public and private. For journalists Aids makes good copy. But editors have their own agenda when turning lives into news. Too often, when reporting HIV, journalists generate panic, then scapegoats. Having built a house of fear they discover a 'plague that never was'.

They have a flirtatious fascination for the virus, almost an obsession with the pandemic of HIV and Aids, mixing more cocktails of sex and death. In truth both are part of any narrative. They are part of this magazine too. So what am I doing adding to the pulp?

I think there are other stories that don't get heard; perspectives that don't turn patients into deviants.

I didn't go looking for HIV or Aids. Friends had it in their blood. I wanted to produce a magazine that comes more directly from the experiences and priorities of people living with HIV and Aids. It strikes me that their frequent emphasis on grassroots partnership and social change parallels the forces that are tackling North-South inequality.

Responding to HIV and Aids, endemic in North and South, brings the two together.

I wasn't prepared for HIV, just as no parent prepares to bury a child. As Adam Mars-Jones says, 'The virus has a narrative of its own, a story it wants to tell, which is in danger of taking over'. My 'narrative' is the need to believe that those who escaped the virus can enhance the work of so many who have not. I guess it's my way of holding on to friends who, of necessity, learned to let go before I could.

This month, World Aids Day is a chance to remember, to celebrate, to contribute. Part of me can't resist an inward smile at this year's slogan: 'Time To Act'. After many years it continues to be Time To Act. This year, let's take the time.

Love in a plague of hatred
Aids is in its second decade. Pratap Rughani looks at how - and whether - we are rising to its global challenge.

Sex, lies and a certain virus
Sue Branford finds out what Brazilian women do when they discover that the virus never lies.

Aids myths and theories
Bullshit under the microscope.

Bringing it home
From Zimbabwe, Dr Sunanda Ray tells a story of medicine and morality.

The ache of sensuality
An intimate portrait of life and death with Aids by Edmund White.

Children and mothers
Personal stories from the frontline.

HIV and Aids - THE FACTS
From body to body politic.

When living is a luxury
What experts pronounce from their luxury hotels has little to do with reality on the ground in Africa. Maggie Black reports.

Simply... Health and humanity
A global look at how countries are responding to the HIV/Aids crisis.

Bigots take the temple
Moralists are encouraging HIV infection according to Ashok Row Kavi and Dinyar Godrej.

Positive lives
Life with HIV and Aids.

ACTION and worth reading

Letters
Letter from Lagos
Updates
Reviews: plus Victor Jara classic
Curiosities
Endpiece: by Luis Sepúlveda
Country profile: Guatemala

FRONT COVER PHOTOGRAPH: KHAJURAHO TEMPLE BY RAGHU RAI / MAGNUM.
MAGAZINE DESIGNED BY: CLAIRE PALMER
ONLINE MAG MAINTAINED BY SIMON LOFFLER