Kneeshe Parkinson was only 17 years old when she tested positive for HIV. Now, more than two decades later, Parkinson says that despite having a disease for which there is no cure, “I’m not just surviving, I’m thriving.”
The daily medicine that the University City native takes is keeping the levels of the human immunodeficiency virus in her body at undetectable levels, she explains—a goal of HIV treatment that doctors say can help those with HIV protect their immune systems, bear children, breastfeed without transmitting the virus, and live longer. Left untreated, HIV, a virus that attacks the body’s immune system, can develop into AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
The first cases of AIDS were reported in the United States in 1981, and there have been more than 675,000 AIDS-related deaths over the past 40 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But medical inroads have been made since the ’80s, including the development of new medicine and faster tests, notes Tawnya Brown, vice president of operations at Vivent Health in St. Louis. “I was a freshman in college when Magic Johnson announced [in 1991] he had tested positive for HIV,” Brown says. “That prompted me to take an HIV test. It was negative, but it took me two weeks before I knew the results. Test results are available in 15 minutes today.”
The sooner one knows their status—whether they are positive or negative for HIV—the better their chances of receiving treatment and lowering their viral loads, so they can lead healthy, enjoyable lives, says Parkinson, who is active in HIV awareness efforts and works for Washington University School of Medicine as a health navigator. She’s also among the founding members of a local steering committee for Fast-Track Cities St. Louis. Fast-Track Cities is an international partnership of more than 300 cities and organizations committed to bringing the number of new HIV cases to zero by 2030.
To help reach that goal, Fast-Track Cities members commit to what they call 90-90-90 targets: 90 percent of people with HIV will know that they are infected with the virus; 90 percent of people living with HIV will receive sustained antiretroviral treatment; and 90 percent of all people who are living with HIV and are on antiretroviral treatment will have durable viral suppression. Two years after St. Louis initially signed on to Fast-Track Cities, Parkinson says, “We can reach that goal of zero new cases, but it is going to take a lot of work and commitment.”
YakubovAlim / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Some individuals may forgo tests out of concern they’ll be judged. Others may worry about costs of tests and follow-up treatment should they test positive, notes Dr. Elvin Geng, a professor of infectious diseases at Washington University School of Medicine. But “people with HIV who take HIV medicine daily as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative partners,” says the National Institutes for Health.
Bill Keeton, Vivent Health’s vice president and chief advocacy officer, says the tools to end the HIV epidemic are already in place: new medicines, improved testing, continued research. “Now, we need to look at strategies on how to best implement those tools,” he says.
Fast-Track Cities is regaining momentum after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Dr. Cory Bradley, the acting co-chair of Fast-Track Cities St. Louis and a post-doctoral research associate in HIV implementation science at Washington University’s Institute of Public Health. “The goal of zero new infections by 2030 is achievable,” he says, “but will involve providing compassionate outreach to diverse populations, allocating resources, and evaluating who is being affected and how we can use resources to reach them.” It’s also important, Bradley says, to make conversations about HIV tests, prevention, and treatment more commonplace—for instance, by providing HIV information in “emergency departments, urgent care facilities, community-based organizations and initiatives, and even spiritual communities.”
The St. Louis Department of Health is “fully committed to working with our partners in bringing the HIV epidemic to an end,” says Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, its director and former co-chair of Fast-Track Cities St. Louis. HIV, she says, “affects all of us, our neighbors, our families, our friends, and others.”
As Parkinson looks back on the HIV test she took more than 20 years ago, she recalls the health care provider who tried to convince her that she didn’t need the test as part of an annual well-woman exam. But Parkinson moved forward. Her message to teens and adults: “Get tested.”
HIV’S IMPACT
A STATISTICAL LOOK AT THE EPIDEMIC, INCLUDING ITS REACH IN ST. LOUIS AND THE REST OF THE STATE
25-44
The largest number of new cases of HIV in 2019 were individuals between ages 25 and 44.
2019 RESIDENTS LIVING WITH HIV
ST. LOUIS CITY 3,440
ST. LOUIS COUNTY 2,263
MISSOURI 12,453
1.2 MILLION
CDC shows that of the 1.2 million people in the United States living with HIV, as many as 13 percent of them do not know it.
