LOVE INFECTED
Published in Dagbladet 2020
It was one of those random encounters.
Harmless. Exciting.
Transmitting.
Left by friends and family, Nathalie sold the one thing she had.
So many men.
And then, him.
She gave him everything.
Her love.
Her hope.
Her HIV.
Svetlana got it all from her husband.
Except Love.
And hope.
Between the denials, he beats her.
But he is not what she fears the most.
Svetlana fears that she will never find what Natalia found;
A man who will accept her.
“If I leave, will I ever experience love again? I mean, who will stay when they find out?”
In 2019 more than 1 million Russians live with HIV. As one of only three countries in the world, the numbers are increasing. While doctors call it a national epidemic, the government has implemented laws prohibition sexual education in school. Together with the Russian Orthodox church, they claim that condoms will only encourage sexual activity and increase the epidemic.
85% of the infected get the disease from heterosexual sex. Young women are the new risk group.
