Chicago Tribune: Living With HIV In The Rural South

The Chicago Tribune has an excellent article about the struggles of living with HIV in a small town in the South. Here is an excerpt from the artlcle.

Sheila Holt moved to Henderson N.C. from New Jersey two years ago to take care of her ailing mother. But as a former heroin addict with HIV, she found that rebuilding her life in the South was harder than she had imagined.

She was shocked that the wealth of services, such as housing, transportation and medications, available to her as an HIV patient in Newark were lacking in Henderson. In the North, she said, people talked openly about the disease without fear of reprisal. In the South, she could not sit at the dinner table with her family or talk to her neighbors about the disease without the risk of being shunned.

With no job and few housing options in this rural area, she lived for months in the basement of her mother's home, slipping upstairs only when her stepfather was at work. She eventually qualified for Medicaid, which pays for the 10 medications she takes every day. And she receives a disability check that helps cover the rent for her sparsely furnished apartment, tucked away on the backside of a public housing complex.

In the eyes of many, including her stepfather—a part-time minister—HIV and AIDS are a sin, she said.

To see the entire article, follow the link courtesy the Chicago Tribune.

http://www.chicagotribune.com