When Dogs Heal
From Producer Charlize Theron and the Creator of “Dogs” on Netflix
There are two true stories of HIV.
One is the macro story, a positive and inspiring story:
a story of decreasing infection rates, effective drugs that can reduce viral loads to undetectable levels, and a vastly improved understanding of HIV since the pandemic began.
The other story is more complicated.
Over a million Americans are still living with HIV. After years of progress, the COVID and monkeypox crises have spiked stigma around illness in general, forcing many people living with HIV back into the closet. It’s been 40 years since the first case, countless deaths since then, and still no cure in sight.
And despite the vast improvement in how we treat HIV, the disease continues to take an enormous toll on those who contract it, psychologically if not physically: studies have shown that while 16 percent of Americans will struggle with depression in their lifetime, 63 percent of people living with HIV will face depression at some point after their diagnosis.
Many of them will also encounter family estrangement, homelessness, and the alienation that comes with this diagnosis. And infections among straight people have been rising over the last few years, broadening the scope of the disease.
