It’s a Sin writer Russell T Davies warns ‘HIV battle not over’

It's a Sin writer Russell T Davies has warned that “the fight is not over” when it comes to eradicating HIV.

He said misinformation about the virus had left him “desperate” and warned we should not “look to the future without looking to the past.”

Davis' warnings came in response to a warning from UNAIDS, the joint UN program for AIDS prevention. The global response to HIV has suffered its worst setback in decades due to reduced global funding.

He warned that failure to meet global HIV targets by 2030 could result in an additional 3.3 million new HIV infections over the next five years.

The World Health Organization views HIV as “a major global public health problem” and it is estimated to have claimed 44.1 million lives to date.

Although the disease has no cure, antiviral drugs developed in the 90s mean patients can live long, healthy lives.

Davis, 62, recalled a time when fears around the virus were at the forefront of the public consciousness and deaths dominated the headlines.

“I was 18 in 1981, so I kind of witnessed the epidemic and stood on the sidelines and was horrified by it,” said the Swansea-born screenwriter.

He said that while he remembers the “heroes who stood up and succeeded and fought,” he was concerned and outraged by the misinformation and stigma that he believes still exists.

“Great dangers are approaching. Now we have HIV denialism, which is becoming a growing force… in some places it's almost becoming political,” he said, referring to the online belief in the United States that HIV does not cause AIDS.

He added: “I am absolutely sure that the battle is not over yet, and sometimes I fear that the battle is about to start again.”

It's a Sin tells the story of a young group of friends in London at the height of the AIDS epidemic.

Davis, who is gay, is considered a trailblazer in LGBTQIA+ drama and said it was the “greatest privilege” of his life to write a series that allowed people to talk about a virus that had been shrouded in shame for so long.

“There’s not a day that goes by that someone doesn’t stop me and tell me how much this show means to them,” he said.

According to the National Health Service (NHS), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a virus that weakens the immune system and increases the risk of serious illness.

It is most often transmitted through vaginal, anal or oral sex with a person infected with HIV without using a condom.

AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), or late-stage HIV, is the name for a group of serious diseases caused by the HIV virus.

With proper treatment, most people with HIV do not develop AIDS and can live long, healthy lives.

There are around 2,800 people living with HIV in Wales, according to Fast Track Cymru, a charity that aims to stop HIV transmission in Wales.

There is a widely accepted goal of ending new transmissions of the virus by 2030.

Mark Lewis, senior policy adviser to the All Party Parliamentary Group on HIV/AIDS at Westminster, recalled the moment he found out he had the virus.

“I was kind of living a lie because I was working in the fields, telling other people, keeping a list, but I didn’t tell my family,” said the 43-year-old, originally from Carmarthenshire.

“I didn't worry about HIV because I thought it had disappeared because it wasn't in the news that much and I thought I was an educated person myself.”

Mr Lewis said he faced prejudice in 2018 as a result of his diagnosis, including from a dentist who asked him if it was safe for him to be treated at the clinic.

He also recalled meeting a bartender who was gay, who didn't know what World AIDS Day was and didn't recognize the pin Mr Lewis was wearing that said “Can't pass it on” – a reference to the fact that you can't pass on HIV if you're on effective treatment.

“That's the problem, a lot of young people don't know about it because we've come so far in treatment and prevention and all that,” he said.

“We still have a long way to go.”

Dr Olwen Williams remembers learning about the first cases of HIV in the UK in the 1980s while she was finishing her medical degree in Liverpool.

She recalls that she could not find any information about this disease in her textbooks.

As a young doctor originally from North Wales, she then worked in an HIV ward in London at the height of the epidemic.

“It was quite emotional because it was my peer group that I looked out for and saw,” the now 66-year-old said.

“These were people aged 20 to 30 years. What happened was just devastating.”

Dr. Williams spoke about the joy she felt as a doctor in being able to tell people that they can live with HIV thanks to modern medicine.

“It’s so phenomenal to be able to say that in my lifetime, I’ve seen something go from an incurable, lifelong sentence to a chronic disease.”