One Family’s Photo Is Changing The Way We Think About HIV
The stigma of HIV continues to hold, but in the age of better treatment and effective drugs, more and more people every day are leading long and somewhat healthy lives. One example of this is a father who decided to share a photo of his family including his three children who are all HIV-negative. 33-year-old Andrew Pulsipher was born HIV-positive after it was passed to him by both his parents. Ten years ago at the age of 23, he married his wife, Victoria, and they started looking into their options when it came to starting a family.
“I kind of just assumed I would get it too,” Victoria confessed to NBC’s 12News. “And that was OK with me, because I loved him and I wanted to be with him.” Andrew and Victoria’s first child was conceived with a help of a fertility specialist by using a special procedure called sperm washing, which separates the uninfected sperm from the infected semen and the child was born HIV negative. The two younger children conceived naturally and are also HIV-negative. After Pulsipher decided to share his photo, and his story on Facebook, the post soon went viral.
“I am sharing this with you because for the first time I can be completely honest with myself and others,” Pulsipher wrote on Facebook. “This has taken me a very long time to be comfortable with (almost 34 years!). I know HIV has a negative stigma, but that it doesn’t have to and I want to help change that. It is a treatable disease and you can live a normal life with it. I am proof of that. I want to educate people so that we can get past the “HOW you got the disease” to “HOW you are living your life with it”? There are many miracles in the world and I believe my life is one of them. I am not the only one and we all have stories to tell.“
