I've lived through it all

There are many ways to tell that Mark (not his real name) is "more of a feeler than a thinker", as he describes himself.

- Hazel Tang

He pauses between words to process his emotions. He is acutely aware of the needs of those around him. When someone in the room is seized by a coughing fit, he immediately offers the person some lozenges.

Being HIV-positive and having two stints in jail for drug use and trafficking have heightened his sensitivity to others, possibly stemming from his own fear of being judged.

Mark, who is in his mid-60s, was first interviewed by The Straits Times in 2008 a year that saw a record high in HIV diagnoses, driven partly by more people stepping forward to get tested.

In the same year, there was a surge in HIV cases among gay men, too, showing how the virus has disproportionately affected homosexual individuals like himself.

Mark was diagnosed in 2001 after being advised to do an HIV test while checking if he had contracted syphilis from his former partner.