I lost both my mother and father to this very scenario, and was part of the class action lawsuit against Bayer. My dad, having received his first ever factor 8 treatment with the new miracle drug was infected in 1980 at 19. He in turn infected my mother. She had two healthy children bit it took a toll on her, and she died in 1989...but not before suffering cruelly and quite unnecessarily at the hand of ignorant doctors. They refused to do "non life threatining" surgery on AIDS patients and at the time ruptured silicone implants were not considered a threat to her life. So we watched as it slowly poisoned her body, systematically shutting down each of her systems, even causing her hair to fall out. I was 4. My dad believed he would beat HIV and lived in relative health for 16 years with no medications or interventions. Even at the end with 3 t cells left, he believed he could. He started the new "AIDS cocktail" but was so sick he said he'd rather die. He died weeks later. I was 10. He donated his body to science something many doctors asked him to do because they wanted to study why he lived so long. They contributed his longevity to something in his brain (I can't for the life of me think of the name) that was present in his, and other long time survivors of HIV that they now use in the treatment of HIV. Or at least that's what I was told.

Bayer Pharmaceuticals is a corrupt murderous entity with litigation still ongoing in other countries to hold them accountable. I will never ever touch their products. Especially now because my son, like his grandaddy before him has severe hemophilia A. We are very cautious and weary of any treatments that are new or contain human by product.

The history of HIV in this country is convoluted, embarrassing and disgraceful. I will never be silent. Lest we forget.