A human story – “Michael” speaks about living, learning and surviving with HIV

By Andrew Carmichael

As Guyana joins the rest of the world today in observing World AIDS Day 2025, health officials are urging the public not to become complacent in the fight against HIV, even as treatment improves and deaths decline. National data from late 2024 and early 2025 estimates that between 10,000 and 11,000 people in Guyana are currently living with HIV. While treatment access and survival rates have significantly improved the Ministry of Health reports that new infections are rising, up 19 per cent since 2010, with 449 new cases diagnosed in the past year alone. Even more troubling, adolescents and young adults aged 15–24 accounted for 14 per cent of new infections, signalling an urgent need to strengthen education, prevention and youth-focused outreach.

Despite the rise in new infections, the country has seen a major reduction in HIV-related deaths. Fewer than 200 AIDS-related deaths were recorded in 2023, continuing a long-term decline. Between 2000 and 2019, HIV mortality fell by 20.8 per cent, largely due to expanded access to free antiretroviral therapy and improved monitoring.
Meanwhile, Guyana moves toward 95-95-95 (1:- 95 per cent of all people with HIV to know their status, 2:- 95 per cent of those diagnosed to be on treatment, and 3:- 95 per cent of those on treatment to be virally suppressed) target, which is the standard set by UNAIDS, but a treatment gap remains. At the end of 2023, Guyana’s results were 94-72-87. While testing rates remain impressively high, the second indicator, treatment uptake, remains a concern. Around 7,000 people are currently accessing free Government-provided HIV medication, according to the Health Ministry, but hundreds more who know their status either don’t care or are not consistently taking medication.

Living with HIV
To understand the lived reality behind the statistics, this newspaper spoke with a man living with HIV, who agreed to share his experience under the pseudonym Michael.
Michael was diagnosed in 2017, after falling seriously ill at work.
“I was feeling unwell progressively,” he recalled. “One day, my colleagues had to take me to the hospital. I was admitted for two days. It felt like having the flu, plus feeling light-headed—you can’t even think.” He said the test result was not entirely surprising because he had lived “a reckless life,” but the way he was tested added to the emotional weight. “They took a blood sample, trying to diagnose the problem and one of the tests they did was HIV. My understanding is that those tests should not be done without consent. At first, I wanted to confront the doctor, but then I thought it would not do me any good. I needed to focus on getting better.”
What happened next changed his life. Michael started antiretroviral medication and, to his relief, he began feeling better within a week.
“Surprisingly, after being on the medication for one week, I was as good as ever,” he said.
“…I gained back weight and felt normal again,” he added. But like many people who feel healthy on treatment, Michael became complacent in 2023, and stopped taking his medication for nearly a year. “I actually thought I was healed. My doctor realised I wasn’t coming to collect my supplies. They contacted me, counselled me, and did blood tests. My Viral Load was higher than it should have been,” he admitted.
The experience, he said, frightened him back into consistency. Michael believes he contracted HIV from a one-time unprotected encounter years earlier with a woman he had offered a ride home. “I can’t directly say who I picked it up from, but I think it was her. We had unprotected sex.” He says he has not knowingly infected anyone else, though one close call left him deeply anxious. Still, he has returned to treatment and remains committed to living healthily. His message to others is simple but powerful.
“I would advise anybody who is tested positive to stay on their medication. And those who are not, to have protected sex. There’s medication now you can use after the act if you make a mistake. And people living with HIV need to periodically get tested while they stay on their medication.” Meanwhile, as Guyana progresses, better survival rates, wider treatment access and free national prevention services have transformed HIV from a death sentence into a manageable lifelong condition. But the rise in new infections and the treatment gap reflect urgent challenges. World AIDS Day 2025 is a reminder that ending HIV in Guyana is not only possible, it is within reach, but it requires sustained action. More young people must be reached with prevention tools, more diagnosed persons must be, and remain on, treatment. Communities must lead the fight against stigma, testing must remain accessible and confidential and those who test positive must receive safe, non-judgmental care. Nevertheless, as the nation reflects on the lives lost, the survivors, and the families affected, one truth remains clear: HIV is preventable, treatable, and no longer a barrier to living a full and healthy life, if people access the care available to them. And as Michael’s story shows, hope, education and consistency can make all the difference.