Some long-term HIV survivors endured years of successive opportunistic infections

Evidence

I remained inspired by Clifford as I watched him survive TB and then a year later pneumonia, and then the year after that it was CMV virus causing him to start to go blind. And then it was Hepatitis A, B or C, who knew? On and on the list of infections would go that would take hold for a while, and he would valiantly battle and always emerge the victor. He was Santa Barbara’s poster boy, volunteer of the year, the only person I knew who would hang his IV drip on his rearview mirror and take his dose while driving from Santa Barbara to L.A. for a business meeting. He was the best-looking, healthiest, long-term HIV survivor I have ever known. — Dolores DeLuce, Blow Jobs, 258

Categorization

• QUESTION: CMV, TB, and hepatitis as serial HIV complications read as a specific pre-ART era picture of survival; worth confirming the timeline of antiretroviral availability.