Patricia Pérez, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was 26 years old when her HIV test came back positive. "Back then, the news was a death sentence," she recalls 16 years later. "I was so distressed, I cried and cried, not knowing what to do. AIDS was a fatal disease; that was the reality. You'd see someone in the hospital, and a week later he or she had died. Why shouldn't I think I was facing the same situation?"
Pérez recalls that her doctors all said the same thing. "They would tell me, ‘You need to take care of yourself, but you have about two years to live', like ‘it's going to rain tomorrow'," she says. "My partner Daniel and I decided to live for the moment, saying ‘Today is forever,' and tried to cope with the anguish of our loss."
Pérez defied her doctors' prognoses and survived beyond those two years. The third year, she began taking zidovudine, or AZT. "I didn't want to take medication. It was a very agonizing process. At first, AZT was very toxic, and I had to take 12 pills per day. People who took it felt awful, their hair fell out and they had no quality of life. But after considering everything, I realized it was AZT or nothing."
As soon as she started treatment, Pérez's immune system began to improve. "It made me feel better. I took AZT for five years, even though international recommendations said you shouldn't take them more than two. I was fine. My doctor and I agreed not to change my treatment."
As the years went by, Pérez switched treatment combinations, adjusting to new schedules and new side effects. She also came to terms with her illness and began reaching out to others in the same situation. "In 1991 I traveled to London for a meeting of people living with AIDS and took part in a demonstration with 10,000 strangers fighting for the same cause, for our rights," says Pérez.
"The next year, in Amsterdam, I joined a group of 27 women from different countries, and we founded the International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS. My life took a new direction, and I fully embraced the cause of women's empowerment to make sure that our voice is heard around the world as we speak out against the injustice, stigma and discrimination that we are subjected to daily."
Today Pérez's cause is universal access to the antiretroviral therapy that gave her a new lease on life. "The international community needs to fight harder so that every PLWA [person living with AIDS]—no matter what country they're from or whether they can afford it—can get access to the best treatment."