Human immunodeficiency virus

Diagnosing a patient with HIV is something I do not like having to do, but today I had to break it to an 18 year old male, who we'll call Darren, that he is HIV positive. Darren is an extremely sexually active bisexual male who regularly has one night stands with both men and women and often without protection. Darren has the problem that for many of his recent "conquests" he has no contact details at all. He vaguely remembers having sex let alone the person's name and telephone number. This means that Darren cannot get in contact with the majority of his recent "conquests" to inform them of his HIV status and to suggest that they too get infected with HIV.

Darren will now be on a concoction of drugs for the rest of his life, some of which have short term side effects which are not all that pleasant. On top of that he will need to get used to the change this will have on his life... His attitudes and behaviours towards sex will need to change and his daily routines will need to change to ensure that he takes his medication.

After his results appointment with me, at which I spoke about his result, the mediatisation he'll need to take, the side-effects, the importance of taking all his medication regularly and exactly as prescribed he would have had some post-test counselling. A time where Darren could talk about how he feels about the result etc.

This is the side of my job that I do not enjoy.