19 Yr Old Diagnosed with HIV in Feb This Yr., WHY? What is it We Don't Know?

  

 

There is a story below that appeared in The Washington Post today and I have it below. It's about a 19 Yr old who recently got diagnosed with HIV. It tells you his story about those feelings when he got the news from a doctor or technician. I'm, sure there are people that would feel bad for this young guy. I feel bad but disappointed. Glad it was in one paper because the media is and has been very bad about this. From misinformation to no information. No, no one deserves to come down with a disease they don't have to come down with. I don't think the media tells the reader much good information about HIV or how it can be avoided. The media is terrible at this and it has been since the first person was diagnosed with gay cancer. That's the word the media gave it. It's never been cancer, it's a virus and you would think since the causing of HIV was infecting people with COVID-19 or the Corona Virus we would have learned something about it. Where was this young guy that learn nothing? Let's see if someone will read this and learn something which is very easy to learn. Science might be hard but the results of a virus that's been around for 40+ yrs is not.

First: HIV is Not AIDS

Can HIV get you sick? Yes and Usually if it goes untreated then you will become sick and one of the illnesses you can get is AIDS  (Auto  Immune Deficiency Syndrome). Auto comes from within the body on its own (HIV infection) and it can sustain itself once it gets to your immune system which is that part of your body that fights all diseases. The immune system only activates when an infection or foreign object is detected and only that particular section. Otherwise if it was full-speed fighting an infection it will become less active, it will burnt out because the fighting is a war. In a war, soldiers die and there is an ultimate winner. Your immune or your AIDS virus. 

How do you get this?: You get it through sex.  Any sex? No. You get it when your blood or fluids which contain blood will come in contact with a sore that also has blood. (They call it bodily fluids which confuse people since there is more than one bodily fluid. Many things kill AIDS from sunlight to not feeding it to meds. How does it feed? It feeds on your immune system. Your immune cells have a crown (corona) and a corona has spaces in between. If something is the right size it could fill that or those holes and go in. The Virus is able to get the key that fits the immune cell (white blood cell). Once is in changes the DNA of the cell making it look like a nice CD4 cell or helper immune cell. That's so it won't be attacked by the rest of the immune system from one infected you get two and so on and so on it keeps replicating. It will go nonstop until you have no immune system left. Many would get sick before that happens but eventually, without treatment AIDS is next.

So HIV does not kill you and neither does AIDS.

 HIV will get you to AIDS and AIDS will kill your immune without an immune a cold could kill you because it will get complicated with a whole bunch of illnesses that people don't get at the same time. You get diseases from the air and bacteria in the environment. Usually, we have an immune system that fights that and we don't know it.

The blood is the "A" train that can get HIV anywhere it wants to go because the blood brings oxygen and food to all the cells.

So, How you do not get it while having a good sex life?? And you can. Religion and even the government do not want you to have sex if you are gay. You don't deserve it. You are going against the natural way of things so now hold it in. These are people that don't know how good sex is for the immune system, against depression and so many good things. 

You don't get it by oral sex or saliva, tears, or sweat. Now I know there will be someone that knows without studying. Someone is going to say that saliva is got microscopic blood in it. Yes but because is microscopic and is in a place full of protective antibodies, the mouth, you will need to drink gallons of saliva to get enough. (SALUD!) You will die of a ruptured stomach before you get HIV.

Now what is the difference between the two again? You can not get AIDS because AIDS is a Syndrome. It's a cause of something else (HIV)In other words, AIDS is the Automobile that carries the diseases you can get from it.

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AIDS can open the doors to any disease the immune system fights against because the immune system is losing the fight or is fighting for your life or if it dies it will have AIDS and no meds.. So AIDS dies with it? YES! 

That is why the HIV that got you AIDS will love another person soon. All viruses want to become king of the world and destroy us or most of us. But there are a few people that are immune like there were people immune to COVID-19. But it will be HIV that will travel to you through your blood.

If I miss something ask me. I have studied HIV/AIDS  since 2003 because before that, things were changing so fast and I just kept hoping it will hurry up and take me. The stigma alone was making me a loner. They are condoms but I always had to open my mouth in case something develop I felt I should tell before, not after. I became HIV from someone who took a condom. a Brazilian tourist. I fell asleep after a night of dancing and drinking. He kept trying to turn me around and just so I could sleep I put a condom in him and I had taken mine off already used. The next morning I found his condom unused.   6 months after having a negative test and 6 months after my relationship of 9 yrs broke off. The next one was positive. During the worse days of AIDS, I had someone but when I became positive there were no meds. But I had some friends that were positive. The doctor told me Im dying, someone who knew nothing about the disease but he had plenty of Kleenex.. I spent a year without no meds. Quit my job and started ready to go like the Dr. said.. Where am I now? Ever since the new family of antiretrovirals was invented I started taking them and the doctors kept switching as better tests were there to show the virus and how much was there of it  (VIRAL LOAD) and which medication would kill it so I could have the right one. Once that test was made available and my insurance paid for it every 3 months it showed for the past 10 yr undetectable. 

What does Undetectable mean? Just what it says, can not be detected, found, or seen. So could I have given HIV to this 19 yr old? No for two reasons. 

1. I don't go for 19 yrs old, Not even when I was 19. Too young.

2. Undetectable, nothing to give.

Now How could this young man have kept negative?  PREP Prepflaxis pills and if you can't afford them you can still get them. I will tell you.

You have millions upon millions of immune cells because they have to fight all types of infections. Can you be undetectable with *50 HIV cells in your immune system? The lab will pull out a report that says undetectable 50. So you are undetectable because even though the test can spot 30, and 50 but you need millions to give you HIV. I go by 200. 

All you care about is that you are diagnosed by the lab as undetectable. You won't spread HIV. How many cells are in the immune system? Millions. How many HIV cells do you need to get it?  Many, many!

It depends but most doctors that treat this specialty say that usually, a threshold is 200 but these numbers are not set in stone. I've been told by doctors it takes millions to turn you. The numbers that are set in stone are that even if you don't take PREP if Im undetectable you will be ok. You will not turn.  But because if you ask 50 guys are HIV? most of them will say no and 2 will say I don't know, don't know means they haven't been tested. Stay away or condoms or PREP. Even if they are positive with any amount Prep will protect you. Now why in the world didn't he know that?  

I don't know.  Would he be ok? He should if he is able to take the meds religiously and are the right meds. He needs support as I did. Unfortunately, they were AIDS, and are all dead. 

No Meds back then. I was given two yrs max and I started waiting and got very pissed when I never left and even my mom and sister left me. But life does not belong to us but to the planet. You just have to be human and just let things happen without killing your spirit. You will need that very much. Whether not sick or sick or dying, you need your spirit to be well. What happens to HIV if it doesn't multiply, dies.

Adam Gonzalez, Writer, and Publisher 

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In the first video, Zachary Willmore is sitting in his childhood bedroom wearing a pink sweatshirt, his blond hair swooshed to the side, and begins applying makeup.

“Yesterday I found out that I got diagnosed with HIV,” Willmore says in the 48-second TikTok video. “I’m not posting this until I feel completely ready because honestly, I’m worried about people looking at me as untouchable. But people keep giving me hugs.”

Willmore, a 19-year-old freshman at San Diego State University, says he spent his winter break suffering from flu-like symptoms including fever, chills, and nausea. He took tests for the coronavirus, flu, and STDs “just to be sure.”

The test results were all negative, except for one.

“They don’t put HIV on the results list,” Willmore said. “So they called me in.”

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When his doctor explained his diagnosis on Feb. 16, “it felt like the world was ending,” Willmore said in an interview. “I just wanted to drain all the blood out of my body.”

HIV remains a stigmatized and misunderstood disease. But over the past month, Willmore has taken his 1.8 million followers on a journey through his fears, confusion, and ultimate acceptance of his illness in a series of more than 20 videos. In some, he is as cheerful as ever, applying makeup and chronicling a shopping trip to Zara with his mother. In others, he’s diving into the details of medication and urging followers to wear condoms.

One of his most popular posts — an eight-second long video of Willmore staring off into the distance with the words “What it felt like after getting diagnosed with HIV and having to go back to class like nothing happened” — has been viewed over 15 million times.

“When I do my videos in my lighthearted way it’s because I’m feeling happy,” Willmore told The Post. “I think it’s important to shed light on how it’s not just sad parts. … I’m still living my life. This disease doesn’t define who you are.”

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Willmore says he’s mostly encouraged by his followers, including some who shared that they have been living with the disease for decades. “That was just really powerful for me because it gave me a broader perspective on the world,” Willmore said.

There are a few critics too who say he is taking the disease too lightly. Podcast host Elijah Schaffer tweeted to his 600,000 followers about Willmore: “Bro thinks HIV is cute and makes him unique. Gen Z is so confused.”

That type of criticism is based on “not being knowledgeable on the subject and not understanding why it’s important,” Willmore says.

After receiving his diagnosis, Willmore immediately called his parents and decided to fly home.

“I've always told my mom everything specifically, and I knew that she would just want the best for me and want me to be safe,” Willmore said.

Leila Willmore was sitting hundreds of miles away in her Missouri home when she received the call.

“It was initially devastating. My heart and my stomach sank. But I also had a feeling of, is that really true? Are we sure that’s the case?” she said.

Willmore told her son, “I feel like there’s nothing he can’t handle.”

Standing nearby, Zachary Willmore’s father, Theodore, overheard the conversation.

“Her voice was tight,” Theodore Willmore recalled. When she hung up, “she said, ‘I have life-changing news.’”

There are 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States and more than 35,000 new infections in 2020, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Young gay and bisexual men accounted for 84 percent of all new HIV diagnoses in people aged 13 to 24 in 2020, the CDC reports.

After decades under a virus’s shadow, he now lives free of HIV

Zachary Willmore knew little about the disease when he was diagnosed. “I was told people with HIV can live up to 70 but I don’t even want to live past 20,” he said in one video.

His father, an emergency room physician, began by helping put the treatment options into perspective.

“Forty years ago it was a death sentence and now it’s a chronic treatable condition, which is fantastic,” Theodore Willmore said. “But it still requires a young man to be very attentive and take medicine every single day.”

HIV-related mortality rates peaked in 1995 and have declined significantly.

Yet the stigma surrounding HIV remains for many, said Lawrence Yang, a professor of social and behavioral science at New York University who has studied stigma reduction for health conditions for about 25 years.

“In order for stigma change to occur on a societal level we need more people sharing their stories,” Yang said.

In a March 1 video viewed 585,00 times, Zachary Willmore explained to his viewers that his treatment is “very simple.” He takes one pill a day at 11 a.m.. In a few months, he may be able to take a shot instead of a pill.

“Today was the longest day ever, my appointment started at 11 and lasted until 4, but I am medicated!” he said. “Also there was a lot of good news at this meeting. So a high viral load would be in the millions and I have a viral load of 11,400.”

HIV rates remain stubbornly high in Mississippi, despite falling cases across the U.S.

A few days later, he told subscribers that he was feeling better. His cough had dissipated and swollen lymph nodes were going down.

“I feel like I have just more energy in general,” Willmore said in the March 5 video.

Before his diagnosis, Willmore’s TikTok was filled with posts about his daily life as a college student, and rushing a fraternity. Turning attention to his HIV status has been difficult, he said but is an important part of educating the public about the disease.

This is the same young man who told his classmates he was gay through a PowerPoint presentation during his social studies class in the seventh grade, his mother remembers. She told him at the time, “People are gonna want to know why you’re telling them this. And he said, ‘Because I think it’s stupid to lie about who I am, and I don’t want my friends to have to lie for me.’” Leila Willmore said.

“He has always been in control of his narrative,” she said.

In early April, Zachary Willmore reached a new milestone. The virus was no longer detectable in his blood.

“I’m so excited … this is a huge accomplishment for me even though I didn’t really do anything,” Willmore said in a video. “I just feel good today, it’s a great day.”

hiv.gov or Find local HIV testing sites at locator.hiv.gov.