People are very quick to say that a gay man or a person given a "positive" diagnosis has died of aids if they die "too young." The tendency is to blame any and all health issues on "hiv" and throw up their hands.
However, people suffering poor health are common. There is nothing terribly rare about people with multiple infections, diseases and problems. Of course, the majority of these cases are likely the results of poverty, addictions and self abuses. But the point is that when a person is gay, or labeled with hiv, then suddenly, there is only hiv, and not the gritty reality of life-style problems.
The article: Police find woman dead in apartment, states that a 58 year old woman was found dead in an apartment, and her death is being labeled "natural causes." However, the article also says: "...Barnes had a number of health conditions including emphysema, hepatitis and heart conditions for which she was taking medication..." if this woman had the misfortune of testing for hiv, surely she would be diagnosed as hiv positive and her death would be an aids death.
Maybe, to get more funding, hiv/aids groups could adopt a version of the Mormon practice of post-mortem baptism and posthumously declare all cases such as this woman to be aids deaths.
But seriously, there is no difference between this poor woman's struggle with life and the struggle of many people labeled "hiv positive" except for the "hiv positive" label.
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