The Netherlands first became acquainted with AIDS in 1982, under the name GRID (Gay Related Immune Disease) because until then only homosexual men were infected.
In 1984 it became known that the disease is the result of infection with the HIV virus, with which anyone can become infected. The Dutch government therefore decided to launch the first information campaign in 1987 with the advice:Pretty safe! Stop AIDS!
Fighting AIDS with a combination of drugs will become standard in the western world in 1995. No longer does AIDS kill. However, the medicines are not or hardly available in large parts of the world. In 2007, 2.1 million people have already been killed by AIDS.
'I got fungus in my mouth'
Saskia was one of the first women in the Netherlands to be infected with HIV. She survived because of a new experimental drug.
’ In 1988 I was 26 – I signed up as a blood donor. My blood was tested at the blood bank. A week later had to come to the hospital. There I was told that antibodies against the HIV virus had been found in my blood.
I often went out with a friend during that time. We slept together three times. He did it with guys too, though he's always denied it. In the Surinamese culture where he grew up, AIDS is a taboo. Until his death he denied that he had AIDS.
I got all kinds of medical complaints:pneumonia, fungi in my mouth. None of the drugs worked for long. So I muddled on until I became very ill. I weighed 42 kilos and was going to die. My internist gave me new drugs from America as a last resort. That was the combination therapy, which was only used as a 'trial' in the Netherlands. It was tough:I had to take medication three times a day, at fixed times. Fortunately, the combination therapy has improved a lot over the years.
At the moment, women are the fastest growing group with HIV, but in the 1980s it was a gay disease. There were no safe sex campaigns, there was no education at school. You just had to be careful not to get pregnant.
A holiday in South Africa has made me aware that I am in a privileged position. The AIDS problem is so terribly big there. I can hardly imagine what it is like to have AIDS and to know that there is a drug on the other side of the world that I cannot get.”
The name Saskia has been changed for privacy reasons.