Living with HIV in 2024

While there is still no effective cure, major medical advancements in antiretroviral therapy have made living with the human immunodeficiency virus HIV) much more manageable. While it’s no longer the death sentence it once was, social stigma still exists. The Straits Times speaks to eight people in Singapore living with HIV about what life is like since their diagnosis.

- Jessica Novia

In 1985, Singapore reported its first case of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. At that point in time, little was known about the virus or how to manage it. It was widely seen as a precursor to Aids and, without a cure, a certain death sentence.

It did not help that it was spreading disproportionately among already marginalised groups: men who had sex with men, sex workers and drug users. In Singapore, as in many parts of the world, fear of contagion and the unknown led to widespread discrimination against and stigmatisation of people living with HIV (PLHIV).

"There was no information, we didn't know how it spread and everybody was so scared," recalls retired Singaporean nurse Iris Verghese, 78, who counselled Singapore's first HIV patient as a health adviser.

Nurses and doctors were resigning because they were scared of getting infected, she says. Taxi drivers refused to ferry passengers to and from the old Communicable Disease Centre in Moulmein Road, where patients with HIV and Aids were treated.

"In those days (the late 80s and 90s), people with HIV had a poor prognosis," says Professor Roy Chan, the founding president of Action for Aids (Singapore), or AfA.

Founded in 1988, the charity was the first support group for PLHIV in Singapore, advocating their welfare, rights and access to treatment.

According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in July 2024, there have been 2,457 HIV-related deaths in Singapore since 1985.