p Although a diagnosis of HIV positive is widely considered evidence of infection with a lethal virus, you have the right to question this diagnosis and to determine what testing HIV positive will mean to you. Your health is ultimately your responsibility, and with the current state of orthodox AIDS information and treatments, it is especially important that you become your own health advocate. You can start by building a solid foundation of knowledge upon which to base important choices regarding the rest of your life. Connecting with, or creating a support network of well-informed peers and health professionals can make it easier for you to put fear and outside pressure into perspective, cultivate wellness, and stay focused on the facts.

p Be aware that your physical health is greatly influenced by what you accept as true about HIV and AIDS. Beliefs can be as potent as any drug or microbe, and living in terror of HIV and AIDS is guaranteed to produce devastating physiological effects. To the degree that it is possible, stay calm, hold a picture of health in your mind, and surround yourself with life-affirming influences while you work to replace detrimental beliefs and unfounded fears with factual information.

p For everyone who receives a positive test result, HIV is the beginning of a journey. You have the right and the ability to choose what paths you will take on your journey. Remember that there is another side to popular news and information about HIV and AIDS.

p Keep in mind these helpful facts about testing HIV positive:

p > Viral antibodies alone do not cause or predict illness; in fact, they are an indication of a normal, healthy immune response and provide protection from disease. There is no evidence to indicate that HIV antibodies differ in any way from helpful, protective antibodies.

p > Since HIV antigens cross-react with antibodies produced in response to numerous diseases and microbes commonly found in normal, healthy people, a positive HIV test result does not confirm past exposure to HIV

p > Since HIV antibody tests have never been calibrated against virus isolation, their true accuracy has never been established which means that there is no substantiation for the claim that testing HIV positive indicates a present infection with HIV

p > People in AIDS risks groups are at high risk for testing false positive on HIV antibody tests. Injection drug users, hemophiliacs, blood transfusion recipients, people from areas of the world where malaria, hepatitis, tuberculosis, leprosy and parasitic infections are endemic, and certain gay men have been exposed to many foreign antigens and infectious agents documented to give false positive results on HIV tests.

p > Actual HIV is never directly detected in people who test positive on the antibody tests.

p > Viral load tests cannot diagnose illness, measure HIV infection or determine state of health. Viral load tests do not detect actual virus and are not approved by the FDA for diagnostic use. As the manufacturers’ own literature states, the test “is not intended to be used to confirm the presence of HIV...”

p > No type of viral load test has ever been verified by virus isolation.

p > In the only published study that compares viral load results against the finding of HIV by co-culture, more than half of people with detectable levels of viral load had zero virus.^^210^^

p > It is possible to receive an AIDS diagnosis even though you are not ill or suffering from any symptoms of immune suppression.

It is important to note that although you may choose to live without regard to your HIV status, there are legal ramifications to testing HIV positive that cannot be ignored. As unfair and misguided as these regulations may be, they do exist. At present, 32 states in America have criminal statutes on “transmission of HIV" and 17 of these make it a felony crime for a person who has tested HIV positive to engage in many forms of sexual activity, including sexual intercourse. In some states, the informed consent of a sexual partner is not allowed as an affirmative defense; in other states an affirmative defense requires that the person who tests HIV positive use a condom. One state makes it illegal for anyone who tests positive to marry. For a complete list of state criminal statutes on HIV, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to The American Foundation for AIDS Alternatives.