Abstract
The HIV/AIDS pandemic was a major crisis at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. Such a defining moment in the history of health-related infections led to transformations in its proponents, as well as their medical practice. This research article, using a study consisting of semi-structured interviews with six Canadian gay physicians from different Canadian HIV/AIDS treatment centers, aims to offer insights into their lived journeys, from 1981 to 2009, while they attempted to treat, care for, and cure/heal their gay HIV/AIDS patients. The results of the study, deduced from a qualitative and interpretative data analysis, suggest that through reflection on their experiences during the HIV/AIDS pandemic, they transformed their personal and professional identities, and rethought their relationship with their patients, as well as their professional, pharmaceutical, and community networks. These results are testimonies from Canadian gay physicians who fought against the HIV/AIDS pandemic and who advocated for their gay HIV/AIDS patients. In fact, these results are evidence of an untold and valuable period in medical history. For some, it will serve as a reminder. For others, it will be foreign. It was a time marked by a major crisis that mobilized gay militant physicians who were personally and professionally affected, and who were forever transformed by their response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This is their hereto untold lived journeys.
Highlights
The human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) pandemic was a major crisis at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century
The following two broad-meaning categories emerged from the data analysis of the semi-structured interviews conducted during Jacob’s (2012) study: namely, Category 1: the transformation of the physicians’ identities, both personal and professional; and Category 2: the transformation of the relationships physicians nurtured with their patients and with various networks
These themes highlighted the impact of the emergence of HIV/ AIDS; emphasized the uncertainties generated by a multiplication of scientific and medical discoveries/findings; talked about the perceptions physicians held about sexuality, drug use, and HIV/AIDS; and have drawn attention to the way they practiced medicine, going from a physician-centered practice toward a patient-centered practice
Summary
The human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) pandemic (pandemic) was a major crisis at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. Disease, or infection was reported for the first time by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (U.S Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). It was first called gay cancer or gay plague by the media, and gay-related immune deficiency (GRID) by the CDC (Altman, 1982; Chibbaro, 1982; Cichocki, 2009; Kher, 1982). As cases appeared in other parts of the world, besides North America, such as Europe and Africa, it was eventually recognized as a pandemic (Altman, 2011; Smith, 2001)
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