00:01It's something that will always be a part of my story because it's been
00:06something that has always been a part of my life. I don't live with HIV. HIV really
00:11lives with me. I don't think of myself as a sick person. I would never ever call
00:16myself a victim. I would call myself a survivor.
00:26Since the epidemic of the 80s, HIV and AIDS have taken a backseat in American
00:30consciousness, only stirring up controversy of late in celebrity gossip magazines. So
00:35as World AIDS Day approached, I wanted to see what the virus actually looks like today.
00:40I started by traveling to the site of the largest outbreak in recent U.S. history.
00:44Austin is a strange little community. It's like there are two sides to Austin, just like
00:52a coin has two sides. One side you have a very, very strict religious community and then there's
00:58a flip side to Austin. Indiana is now in the midst of the largest
01:01HIV outbreak in state history. 150 people have tested positive. The epicenter is in the small
01:07town of Austin, Indiana located just 30 miles or so north of Louisville, Kentucky.
01:13Idyllic Austin is the picture of small town America. So what caused the outbreak here?
01:19I've been living in Austin since I was six years old. I started using drugs when I was 18 years
01:25old.
01:25First time the needle went in my arm, I was hooked. What stopped me is where I got diseases. I
01:31got
01:31hepatitis C and now I have HIV. What was it like to find out? I was scared and I was
01:38hurt.
01:39And I blame God for giving it to me. But the treatment, it helps. The treatment does. It helps.
01:46Jennifer receives treatment at Austin's only family practice, Foundations Family Medicine,
01:51which is led by Dr. William Cook.
01:52I've been here for 12 years. I was here before the attention, just serving a poor rural community
02:00because I felt that was the right thing to do. When I opened the practice in 2004 and just saw
02:06the
02:06depth of need here, I knew something needed to be drastically changed. And I committed myself to
02:12really try to do everything that I could to be part of that change. Dr. Cook, he's a good doctor.
02:19He
02:19educated me about the disease and started me on the treatment. When somebody's first told they have
02:25HIV, I mean, that's a pretty big pill to swallow. I mean, there's few things that can be relatable.
02:34As soon as you're called in, you know what's up. You know what I mean? Because they don't call you
02:38in
02:39if it's negative. I met Paul, an Iraqi war vet, who agreed to speak with me about his positive status.
02:46I wasn't like this big drug addict or anything. When I got back from Iraq is when I kind of
02:52hit
02:52the slippery slopes. I had a lot of mental illness and I started looking for an escape. Before then,
03:00I was just a regular college student, you know. I've been real careful about me using needles. There
03:07just happened to be a couple times when my addiction kind of overpowered my carefulness. All he had to tell
03:14me basically was like, oh, I know the people. They're clean and that. And that was enough for me to
03:18say,
03:18okay, I'll go ahead and do it. While Paul contracted the disease from intravenous drug use, across town,
03:24I heard a different story from 29-year-old factory worker Janelle Manning. I am HIV positive. I contracted
03:32it from a male partner that didn't tell me. He passed away now. Before I had HIV, I really didn't
03:39know what it was.
03:40How did you feel when you first found out? I was kind of upset about it because the
03:45person didn't tell me. I just kind of stayed to myself. I've only had it for almost a year,
03:52so I feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel, but right now it's just, uh, I'm
03:57not feeling it too much.
03:58Jennifer, Janelle, and Paul are just learning what it means to live with HIV. But back in New York City,
04:05I met 25-year-old Kia LaBeija, an artist and activist who doesn't know life without it.
04:11I was born HIV positive. My mom found out in 1993. She passed away when I was 14.
04:18Healing begins when someone else bears witness.
04:21Which is why Kia's activism takes form in dance and photographs. Most recently, she's been working with local
04:26organization Visual Aids to tell her story through powerful self-portraits that depict growing up with HIV.
04:32Do you feel like you were meant to be this person in this place at this time?
04:37I think I always kind of felt that I would like to tell my story. I have a list of,
04:42um,
04:43things I want to do in my life. I wrote it when I was 16, and one of the things
04:47I wrote on my list was
04:49tell my story to the world. I really felt like I had a lot of things to say, and I
04:57felt like being heard
04:59would be so healing for me. Are you ever scared? And if so,
05:03what do you tell yourself in those moments? Um, every once in a while, I have that little,
05:08you know, that little fear. You know, I think about my mother, and I think about
05:14how she was the strongest person I've ever known, and how I thought she was going to be here forever,
05:19and then one day she wasn't. So fear comes around sometimes, but I just kick fear in the ass,
05:25because I'm like, I don't have time for this. Like, I literally do not have time to be afraid.
05:31In addition to photography during the day, and dancing at some of the top Vogue balls at night,
05:36Kia is also in a committed relationship. This is my girlfriend, Lyon.
05:41My initial reaction, she told me on our first date. Remember I said I was bold? I just,
05:47I grabbed her hand, and I was like, I think you're amazing. This doesn't change my heart at all.
05:53If anything, this just makes it, it, now, now I think of it, and it just, every moment with her
06:00is very precious to me.
06:05Life is short, not just for us as positive people, but for everybody, you know?
06:11Moved by her inner strength, I wondered what Kia's advice would be for someone just coming to terms
06:16with their HIV status. What would you say to someone who's at the beginning of their story?
06:23We're all human, and we all go through our shit. We all go through our shit. And this is our
06:28shit,
06:28you know? Embrace it. Be positive, you know? That's a word that I like to use a lot, you know?
06:35I don't use HIV positive so much, I just use positive. And take care of yourself, and love
06:40yourself, because you are beautiful. It's also important to see that, you know, it's something
06:44you can deal with, and it's something that you can deal with with your partner. And, you know,
06:50I keep her safe, and we, you know, we enjoy our life together.
06:58Along with the face of the disease, the medical treatment for it has also evolved dramatically
07:03since the 80s.
07:04Today, in 2015, the life expectancy of someone with HIV in treatment is basically the same as someone
07:11who's HIV negative, and that's amazing.
07:13Really, as long as you keep your CD4 up, and like, I don't want to make it sound like it's
07:19nothing,
07:20but so far it's, it hasn't been too, too hard on me as far as symptoms.
07:25How does HIV affect your daily life?
07:27I just know if I'm taking my medicine, I'm taking care of myself, I'm okay, you know?
07:33And I'm going to the doctor like I'm supposed to.
07:36When you take a regimen of medications, there's this thing called being undetectable,
07:39which means that the virus is still in your body, but it's dormant in your body,
07:44which means it's not replicating, it's not getting worse.
07:47And because it's so dormant, it's very hard to pass it on to another person.
07:52So being undetectable is like, it feels really good.
07:55Why is it important for you to share your story?
07:58It's important for me to share my story because everyone has a story,
08:02and if you don't tell your story, someone else will tell it and they will tell it wrong.
08:07I couldn't help but think of the people of Austin.
08:10How would they tell their own story?
08:11How would their story end?
08:14I've thought about what the story of Austin is going to be for a long time,
08:19but the story isn't over.
08:22And when the final chapter is written on Austin,
08:25it's going to be one of a place where something bad happened,
08:30but the people didn't give up and they kept fighting.
08:34And we're going to get there.
08:36We've got some work to do, but we're going to get there.
