'I have to stay positive': World AIDS Day marks both tremendous progress and mourning

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Credit: Photo by Molly Hayden

Credit: Photo by Molly Hayden

On Dec. 10, 2010, Clinton Edminster found himself at a clinic in downtown Savannah, awaiting news. For hours, he stared at ceiling tiles, before the nurse walked in, sighed and said, “Your test came back positive for HIV,” the virus that causes AIDS.

"At that moment, everything twisted up and it snapped," Edminster recalled in a TEDxSavannah talk he delivered in 2016.

Chuckling aloud later in the talk, Edminster said he thought to himself: “I have to stay positive.”

Early Wednesday, 11 years after his diagnosis and on the date of the 33rd annual World AIDS Day, Edminister spoke of the two pillars that kept him positive in the face of a scary situation: his family and his doctors.

“Learning about how [AIDS and HIV] works, talking to a lot of folks that work in the health care industry that work with AIDS and HIV,” Edminster said helped him make peace.

World AIDS Day, Dec. 1

As we live within the reality of one pandemic, we sometimes forget another pandemic continues. In 2019, the latest year data is available from the Centers for Disease Control, more than 36,800 people in the U.S. were diagnosed with new HIV infections. Although that number represents a 9% drop in new cases since 2015, more than 35 million have died from the virus since it was first identified in 1984.

Thanks to research, new discoveries, and advanced treatments, more than 38 million people around the world live with the virus. In fact, there have been two reported cases of patients being cured of HIV infections: one in 2009, the other in 2019. The difference between living with and dying of this disease is often access to essential HIV services, according to the World Health Organization's website, and that is why the theme of this year's World AIDS Day was "End Inequalities. End AIDS."

To mark World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, Union Mission held a candlelight vigil at the Forsyth Park band shell intended to both raise awareness of the ongoing AIDS pandemic and to honor the 700,000 people who have died of the disease since the first case was discovered (though the virus was not yet identified) the U.S. in 1981.

“The reality is, they still have this life-threatening illness," said Mayor Van Johnson as he lifted a candle into the dark night, "and therefore, their lives will never be the same, and so we gather to support them, to let them know that we love them, that we have all illnesses of some kind or another, some you can see and some you can’t. The biggest illness you can have is ignorance.".

Since 1990, Union Mission has provided supportive services for Savannahians diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. In particular, Union Mission oversees the Phoenix Project, a 10-bed special needs housing program, and the Daniel Flagg Villas, a 10-unit permanent housing program. Among its other services, Union Mission's TIP Programs offer tenant-based rental assistance, case management, and medical and other services to more than 71 households.

Although a cure has yet to be found for AIDS, doctors and researchers have made huge leaps in prophylactic measures as well as progress in treatment, said Debbie Hagins, chief medical officer of the Chatham CARE Center of Fahm Street. These advances, according to the National Institutes of Health website, the primary U.S. agency responsible for biomedical and public health research, doctors are performing experimental treatments include “therapeutic vaccines, genetically engineered immune cells that are resistant to HIV infection, drugs that reactivate latent HIV to make the virus visible to the immune system, cure-inducing immunotherapies, and interventions to permanently silence HIV in infected cells.”

“Individuals have gone from having a life expectancy that might have been less than two years at the time of presenting for their disease, to where it's now near normal," said Hagins. "The life expectancy is well beyond 50, 60, sometimes 70 years."

'Stop wasting time'

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Credit: Photo by Molly Hayden

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Credit: Photo by Molly Hayden

After Edminster was diagnosed, he received treatment at the Chatham CARE Center. He’s been on a drug test for eight years, but, his treatment has changed as advances have been made. He used to take a cocktail of two pills per day, but three to four years ago, the doctors switched him to two injectable shots every two months. Both are antiretroviral medications, said Edminster, which target the HIV virus.

“It’s great, I don’t have to wake up and worry about where my pills are.”

Edminster said the medical professionals at Chatham CARE offered reassurance that helped him overcome the stigma he had of HIV prior to his diagnosis.

“I definitely thought I was going to die [from HIV or AIDS],” said Edminster. “It took doctors saying 'you’re not going to die' probably 10 times for me not to think that way.”

Said Hagins, “When an individual receives a diagnosis that they have HIV, there's a range of reactions but for those individuals who become terrified and, you know, they think life was over, we just assure them that we have treatments now, that when a person comes into CARE, they can do all the things that they had wanted to do before they had HIV. They can have a family. They can start a business. They can go to school. They can run for office. They can travel because people today who are diagnosed and who come into medical treatment and stay there, do live out their normal lifespan.”

Edminster views his HIV diagnosis as a wake-up call, of sorts. Since his diagnosis, Edminster founded Starlandia Art Supply, in which he mostly sells art supplies to “cool, creative people.” He ran an unsuccessful bid for the Chatham County Commission District 2 seat in 2020, and he has served on the boards of various community organizations — the Thomas Square Neighborhood Association, Creative Coast, Visit Savannah, and Savannah Downtown Business Association.

“I had a campfire in my backyard. I have a couch that’s pretty,” said Edminster. “My life is great, super-duper awesome. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love what I’m doing. I feel super thankful for where I’m at right now. I wouldn’t change anything about it. It’s nice to be able to say that.”

He added that his HIV diagnosis has "never gotten in the way of any relationships. In a way, I thought it was very grounding: It was like, oh, you’re gonna die, so hurry up, stop wasting time.”

Drew Favakeh is the public safety and public health reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at AFavakeh@savannahnow.com

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: 'I have to stay positive': World AIDS Day marks both tremendous progress and mourning