Living With HIV in Taiwan

TaiwanPlus News

Thirty-two-year-old Chen Wei-chi has been living with HIV since he was 18. Instead of letting it consume his life, he sought treatment and dedicated his time to tackling the stigma surrounding the disease. Chen's work is part of a larger movement aiming to educate the public about HIV in Taiwan. Alongside government programs and specialized health clinics, efforts are successfully bringing the number of new cases down.

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00:00From his home in New Taipei, Chen Weiqi reviews promotional materials for HIV Story, a non-profit

00:09he helps run, with the aim of destigmatizing the disease by telling personal stories from

00:14the HIV-positive community. And Chen has his own story to tell. Now 32, he's been living

00:22with HIV since 18.

00:24After I was diagnosed with HIV, I walked home crying. My roommates and I shared a room.

00:34We all slept together. We didn't talk much about it, but everyone would accompany me

00:40to go through it.

00:42His diagnosis was a shock. But volunteering for an LGBTQ plus support hotline at the

00:48time, Chen knew being HIV positive was no longer the death sentence it once was.

00:53He's seen a lot of patients. This disease can make you very depressed, but it can also

01:00make you a better person.

01:04Chen started receiving the treatment he needed to keep the disease at bay. But one day, at

01:09dinner with his family, he noticed a small change in their behavior.

01:13I don't know why, but on that day, everyone was eating with chopsticks and a wooden spoon.

01:19I was a little sensitive. I thought, is this because of me?

01:28Chen was hurt, but his relationship with his family improved as their understanding of

01:33the disease evolved. Over the years, attitudes towards HIV have been changing for the better,

01:39but discrimination still exists.

01:42I've noticed that a lot of discrimination comes from people who don't understand HIV.

01:50In the past, we would think of HIV as a homosexual problem.

01:56So there's a problem of discrimination.

02:00Helping destigmatize the disease are facilities like Hero Clinic in Kaohsiung, where patients

02:05are offered judgment-free, discreet services.

02:10The clinic offers more than just medical services. They have counselling, lectures, and even

02:16art classes, providing a safe space for the HIV-positive community, even reaching out

02:22into wider society with educational programs.

02:26We go to the mountains and do seminars with the indigenous people.

02:32We also go to bars and pubs.

02:42Taiwan's government is also lending a hand in HIV education.

02:46July 2nd is National U equals U Day in Taiwan.

02:50The moniker standing for undetectable equals untransmittable.

02:55With the correct treatment, the disease can become undetectable in a HIV-positive person,

03:00which means they can't transmit the disease to others.

03:03And though there's no cure for HIV yet, improvements in medicine are having a huge impact.

03:10I wouldn't call it a success.

03:14But I think in the past few years, HIV has been improving in terms of treatment and prevention.

03:22There are a lot of solutions, whether new drugs, early treatment, or preventive drugs.

03:29Figures from the Centers for Disease Control show the progress being made, as year on year

03:34the number of new cases continues to fall, and Taiwan becomes a more tolerant country

03:39towards the HIV-positive community.

03:48But there's still room for improvement.

03:51While treatment is subsidized under Taiwan's national health care system,

03:55preventative medicines, key to beating the spread of HIV, are still expensive.

04:09While research is still ongoing, for people like Chen, the progress already made

04:14in treatments and attitudes has been literally life-saving,

04:18allowing them to lead normal lives, barely burdened by what was once the most feared disease in the world.

04:25Ryan Wu, Alex Chen, and Rhys Ayres for Taiwan Plus.

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