Last week the GU AIDS Coalition spotlighted the worldwide HIV/AIDS pandemic during World AIDS Week. But the fight against AIDS is also found at home, as even on the small campus of Georgetown University, the virus affects our friends and classmates. One student, Miguel Aguero (SCS ’11), has come to Georgetown — and the United States — with a story that many can only imagine: After being diagnosed as HIV-positive 13 years ago, he has outlasted initial doctor’s predictions that he had six months left to live. After political changes in Venezuela that occurred as a result of Hugo Chavez’s move to power, the medication that he depended upon and received from the state was denied; when he spoke out against the change in policy, he was called a “threat to the nation.” He then moved to the United States and is in his first year of graduate studies at Georgetown. This week, THE GUIDE sits down with Aguero to learn about living with HIV, his life in Venezuela and at Georgetown and his experiences as a participant in World AIDS Week.

How did you become involved with World Aids Week? How did you participate?
First, I just started at Georgetown at the School of Continuing Studies. I am freshman in the School of Liberal Studies, and on the first week I got involved with the Center for Social Justice, I got involved with the GU AIDS Coalition. [During World AIDS Week], I had a talk with some students from GU AIDS and some from the Latin American Student Association.

When you spoke, what were some of the major topics you addressed?
I told myself to focus on being positive about the stigma that exists with the disease. It has been an epidemic for 26 years, and there is still a stigma attached. I think at this time, 26 years later, people still think that it won’t affect them, and people still think that they won’t meet anyone who is positive.

What do you think is the biggest problem facing those living with HIV?
Besides the stigma, I think the cost of medication and access to treatment because there are problems…. Sometimes there are people that don’t qualify [to receive free treatment that federal governments often provide] because there are federal poverty criteria — like if they make enough money, they don’t qualify for free treatment. It’s kind of a Catch-22 because many of their insurance companies have a cap of $6,000 or $5,000 maximum to be spent, so then they have to pay the rest of the medication out of their own pocket. [The cost of medication per year] varies but the average is $36,000 a year— it’s not cheap.

When did you come to America from Venezuela and why?
I am in political asylum. I left Venezuela six months after Chavez came to power. There were 1,500 who were receiving medication for various diseases through the social security system, including people living with HIV, and [when Chavez came to power and began changing the constitution], we did not have access to medical treatment and care. I sued the insurance [program] and people introduced a petition saying that the medical treatment should be given, and I wrote a letter to a newspaper editor saying that it was immoral to spend a billion dollars to change the constitution. But then there was not a billion dollars to spend on medical care for [those who had been receiving treatment previously].

After I wrote that, of course, the government was not happy…. There wasn’t any legal framework protecting those who were sick. It was like walking on a grey zone; there wasn’t any white or black, and there was uncertainty legally.

[When he heard back from the government about his treatment, they said] my treatment will be too expensive for the country. This is ridiculous, this is one of the richest countries that produces oil in South America. They also made the statement that being a gay man, I could be a threat to the nation. It is a combination of homophobia, but not only do you have overcome barriers like carrying the virus, but also homophobia and the stigmas. If you put it from that prospective, how on earth did that happen? What are your priorities?

I think one of the reasons I am out with my status [is that] I would like to be the voice of those who are forced to be silent for X, Y and Z reasons. There has to be someone to be an outspoken person for them.

When were you diagnosed with HIV and how old were you at the time?
I’ve been positive for 13 years. I am 41.

Have you noticed a difference in how HIV has been viewed over in recent years?
Yes, I think the first years of the epidemic were characterized by fear and paranoia. In the first cases, there was no treatment, it was like the plague — people didn’t want to shake hands, they didn’t want to hug people, they didn’t want to be in the same place; I think now there is more information, but the new generation doesn’t realize the magnitude of how the epidemic is and the numbers have not decreased, so the prevention campaigns have not worked. Now that it has increased, [it shows that] the root of the problem is that prevention campaigns are not working properly; there is a burnout with the epidemic. It’s infecting a lot of women…. I think that females should know there are female condoms available, and they are not cheap, but it is a tool for power to not become infected. And also the other population that is really invisible is the children that are HIV-positive, who are born to HIV-positive women. It is like the big elephant in the room. Being at Georgetown, we should be more conscious of the fact that there are people that are living with HIV; we have to acknowledge that there are children that are infected, and they deserve to have a life like normal children.

Do you think that the university does enough for students who are HIV-positive? What can they do to improve?
I think that it does. I was amazed that when I went to Georgetown, I saw that there was an AIDS coalition; I think that’s very important. I’ve been open about my status in class and nobody has made any negative statements in class, and so far I have felt very welcome in the university.

The Center for Disease Control has been focusing greatly a new strategy, formed like two or three years ago and they were focusing basically on abstinence only programs. I think that prevention-abstinence-only prevention will not work. You have to create focus groups where the community will tell the university what they want for prevention.

I think it is important that they’re trying to give people only one recipe, and there should be different kinds of approaches on how to attack the epidemic. And even if it’s difficult to talk about sex and condoms, condoms work.

There’s a lot of stigma about going to get tested for HIV, like, “Why are you doing this? Why do [you] engage in sexual relations?” It has another connotation — it doesn’t have the same connotation as doing cancer screening. I think it has to do with how the epidemic came about — through gay men and intravenous drug users, two groups who have always been disenfranchised.

Do you think that student activism can make a difference when dealing with an issue like HIV, especially since there are governments and international organizations around the world dealing with the same issue?
Yes, I believe that academia has to play a very proactive role in not only providing opinions [of] professionals who work on the health field but also other people like economists doing research on the economic impact of the epidemic or have or an anthropologist on how gender relations have changed or not changed since the epidemic appeared.… Sociologists can make a study about how people who are living longer with the disease and see how they are integrated back into society. It’s not only necessary from a medical point of view. I wouldn’t limit it just to the medical field. I think it works in every area of every field.

— Interview by Meghan Keneally