WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.795 --> 00:00:03.145 HIV is a viral infection. 2 00:00:03.145 --> 00:00:06.768 It's a viral infection that afflicts 40 million people 3 00:00:06.768 --> 00:00:09.149 around the world, people of all races, 4 00:00:09.149 --> 00:00:11.888 creeds, sexual orientations, religions, 5 00:00:11.888 --> 00:00:14.342 political orientations, and so on. 6 00:00:14.342 --> 00:00:17.961 It affects men and women, children. 7 00:00:17.961 --> 00:00:22.261 It's a disease that, without effective treatments, 8 00:00:22.261 --> 00:00:25.021 without access to continuous care medications, 9 00:00:25.021 --> 00:00:28.856 kills the majority of people that it infects. 10 00:00:28.856 --> 00:00:31.823 That death is not a particularly pleasant thing, 11 00:00:31.823 --> 00:00:34.561 and in our city, in our state, in our country, 12 00:00:34.561 --> 00:00:36.217 for many years, that's what we dealt with. 13 00:00:36.217 --> 00:00:37.380 Back when I started HIV medicine, 14 00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:39.301 I was really a hospice doctor caring for people 15 00:00:39.301 --> 00:00:41.045 who were dying. 16 00:00:41.045 --> 00:00:42.305 I'm happy to say, though, that 17 00:00:42.305 --> 00:00:45.496 through enormous collaboration 18 00:00:45.496 --> 00:00:47.652 between universities and government 19 00:00:47.652 --> 00:00:50.124 and private sector and, most importantly, 20 00:00:50.124 --> 00:00:52.118 patient communities who volunteered 21 00:00:52.118 --> 00:00:54.948 for clinical trials to help us understand 22 00:00:54.948 --> 00:00:57.236 what to do and how to do it better, 23 00:00:57.236 --> 00:00:59.986 HIV need not be a cause of death. 24 00:01:01.318 --> 00:01:03.692 It need not be a cause of infirmity. 25 00:01:03.692 --> 00:01:07.035 It's a medical condition when properly managed 26 00:01:07.035 --> 00:01:09.693 with access to knowledge, to medications 27 00:01:09.693 --> 00:01:12.448 and care that people go on to live normal 28 00:01:12.448 --> 00:01:14.407 or near-normal life expectancies. 29 00:01:14.407 --> 00:01:17.246 The price that's required of that 30 00:01:17.246 --> 00:01:20.561 is access to medical care and, 31 00:01:20.561 --> 00:01:22.448 when necessary, medications. 32 00:01:22.448 --> 00:01:24.824 Together, that actually allows people to live 33 00:01:24.824 --> 00:01:26.988 essentially near-normal life expectancies 34 00:01:26.988 --> 00:01:29.206 with minimum, if any, disease burden 35 00:01:29.206 --> 00:01:30.600 other than getting to have to hassle 36 00:01:30.600 --> 00:01:32.014 seeing me every once in a while 37 00:01:32.014 --> 00:01:33.894 and getting their blood drawn.