This Magazine Was Printed Using HIV-Positive Blood To Challenge The Stigma That Surrounds The Disease
"Now the issue is in your hands."
This week, Vangardist, a progressive men’s magazine from Austria, printed 3,000 copies of their latest edition with ink that has been mixed with the blood of three people living with HIV. Before we go anywhere else with that: no, touching it will not give you AIDS.
In fact, that’s a huge part of the reason why it was made in the first place. With the AIDS crisis of the 1980s so embedded in our cultural memory — and in our pop cultural memory, from Tom Hanks to Matthew McConaughey — there seems to be an enormous lack of knowledge about what HIV and AIDS look like today. And, though you may imagine the horror stories of this era might act as a warning or some kind of lesson to the younger generation, it seems the opposite is true.
In their latest edition, Vangardist cite figures from a UN AIDS/World Health Organisation report which suggests there were 80 percent more confirmed cases of HIV in Europe and Central Asia in 2013, compared with ten years previously. As The Guardian report, in Australia there were 1,235 new cases diagnosed in 2013 which is a 70 percent increase from when figures were at their lowest in 1999.
And, despite the increased rate of contraction, there are also severe misconceptions about those who suffer from the disease. It’s not just gay men who contract HIV and it is not a death sentence. Either due to lack of awareness or ongoing stigma, 30 percent of these increasing cases in Australia are diagnosed after treatment should have already begun.
“We believe that as a lifestyle magazine it is our responsibility to address the issues shaping society today,” said the magazine’s publisher and CEO Julian Wiehl.
“Although people with HIV can live a normal life in countries with good medical care, they are still faced with a hard social stigma of exclusion. Most conceal their illness for fear of losing their friends, their job or their partners or even to find a partner. Because still there are still too many people who are afraid to touch a person with HIV, to embrace or kiss.”
To fight against this limited perception, the issue is themed #HIVHEROES and the three people who gave their blood are put at the forefront of the issue. Importantly, they come from diverse backgrounds — a 47-year-old wife and mother who contracted the disease from her husband, a gay 26-year-old man and a 32-year-old straight man.
Their blood is mixed with the ink in a ratio approximate to 1:28, and the magazine is completely safe to handle. HIV is transmitted via direct contact with bodily fluids (this includes your own), and the donated blood was sterilised before printing. It also comes in a vacuum-packed seal, though this isn’t for health and safety reasons; the magazine’s creators instead want their readers to symbolically break the stigma by breaking the seal.
It’s a move which is being praised by many online, our own writer Nic Holas included. And, as both a person living with HIV and a co-founder of HIV community group The Institute of Many, it’s a topic he’s passionate about.