Abstract
Continued oral intake of antiretroviral drugs helps in prolonging the survival of patients who are HIV-positive. How has it made sense in society and culture to live with HIV? Therefore, this qualitative study conducted an unstructured interview to clarify how HIV-positive people had implications for illness and treatment in long-term treatment.
This article reveals the association between health and illness and the physical, mental, and social status of such patients, and how women who are HIV-positive and in 40s dealt with them.
This case study reveals how the patient incorporated HIV into her daily life. With no established treatment for HIV at the time of infection, she faced death in a calm, quiet, and minimal way of life, had no hope for an uncertain future, and narrowed the gap between life and death. By living as usual, she did not emphasize on her fear of herself or death and adapted her illness to her life with herself and others. She sympathized with others who also followed her way of life and found a new insight about her illness and life on the whole.
Consumption of antiretroviral drugs increased her potential and led her to discover a new self. She was not just a patient or HIV-positive, but a living people.
