SARASOTA – World AIDS Day is coming up. There is a stigma behind HIV and AIDS. Valerie Wojciechowicz, with CAN Community Health, has HIV. While doctors told her she wasn’t going to live past her twenty’s, she is still here today. Valerie says living with it for 34 years, is a double-edged sword.
“I’m grateful to be alive because in my twenties, they told me I’d be dead in 18 months, Valerie Wojciechowicz said. “But, the challenges, medically, socially, that come with living with HIV for so long are daunting. People say to me, oh, in the eighties the stigma was so bad, but today, we still get fired from jobs, turned away for medical treatment, and ostracized from our communities. So, folks don’t want anyone to know their status, and rightly so.”
World AIDS Day is on Sunday, December 1st. CAN Community Health will be providing educational awareness for the public on this day.