|
August 15, 2026
Celebrating 23 years of www.PositivelyPositive.ca.
Long-term HIV survivor Bradford McIntyre shares a historic reflection dedicated to creating HIV/AIDS awareness, fighting stigma, and showcasing the global efforts working to end HIV and AIDS.
As the founder and operator living openly with the HIV virus since 1984, Bradford entered public advocacy in 1994 by appearing on national television to combat the heavy burden of HIV stigma and discrimination. Nearly a decade later, he launched his website to create a visible face for the movement and provide global connection.
Celebrating 23 Years
of www.PositivelyPositive.ca: Creating HIV/AIDS Awareness
By Bradford McIntyre
August 15, 2026, marks the 23rd anniversary of the launch of my website: “Bradford McIntyre Positively Positive Living with HIV/AIDS” (www.PositivelyPositive.ca). Designed to create awareness around the many HIV and AIDS issues and promote messages of positive living with HIV, the website has grown from a modest 20-page site in 2003 into an internationally recognized information and resource hub. To date, this independent, ad-free website has reached 21,494,155 hits as of July 31 2026, from 187 countries globally.
Driven by a Global Community
Worldwide, 91.4 million people have been infected with HIV, and 44.1 million people with HIV have died. We must never forget all those around the world both living with HIV and those who have died.
Their lives and memories motivate me—people living with HIV and AIDS, they are my motivation—to continue creating HIV/AIDS awareness and promoting messages of positive living with HIV.
Even today, the current situation remains critical, as massive funding gaps around the world are driving HIV and AIDS transmission rates in the wrong direction. Seeing these global challenges to end AIDS, it deeply fuels my dedication. It reminds me that people living with HIV and /AIDS are my continuous motivation to showcase the work being done to turn this epidemic around through love, connection, and global solidarity.
The Spark of Writing and Early Collaborations
Before launching my own website, my passion for writing was ignited through a profound international connection. In 2001, I began submitting my articles to HIV/AIDS Positive Stories, a website launched in 1999 by Carolena Helderman in Melbourne/Sydney, Australia, as part of her Masters by Research project at RMIT University.
Those early years of having Carolena post my articles gave me an outlet and truly put a spark into my writing. That early experience of digital community showed me the power of global connection and became the direct bridge to my next chapter: creating a home for my own work.
In 2004, Carolena sent me Macromedia Studio 8, providing me with the advanced tools used to create code, design, and maintain websites. Remarkably, after years of collaborating across the ocean, Carolena and I—having never met before—finally came together in person in 2008 when she traveled to Vancouver and stayed with Deni and me. Carolena has become a very good friend.
An Early Global Inspiration
The global impact of my own website was validated almost immediately after its inception. On World AIDS Day in December 2003, less than four months after the site went live, I received a message from Andy Seale, the Campaigns Coordinator for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). He wrote:
“Bradford, We would like to include your website in a link on UNAIDS. It is good to see positive people taking the lead in the fight against stigma. Keep up the great work.”
Knowing that the website was encouraging people from all over the world to be open about their status to tackle the epidemic was a massive inspiration. That understanding fueled my dedication to expand my efforts. HIV needs to be in the media each and every day as most people only see snippets of news and these are not effective enough. For this reason, in 2007, I decided to create a HIV/AIDS News page where people could find information on many HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) related issues, Infectious Disease, and more. At the same time, I created an HIV/AIDS News Archive page. News items stay on the HIV/AIDS News page for a month, and then News items go into the HIV/AIDS News Archives. Ever since, I have been proudly including UNAIDS press statements and press releases on www.PositivelyPositive.ca.
A Personal Journey of Survival and Aging
The history of this website is inextricably linked to my own life living with HIV. As a long-term HIV survivor since 1984, I have lived through the darkest decades of this epidemic. In those early years, the future was entirely uncertain. I remember thinking that if I could just live ten years, better treatments and medications would surely arrive. I believed that in twenty years, the fight would be over and HIV would be completely eradicated.
While HIV eradication remains an ongoing global battle, my own physical survival has taken a unique path. I have lived all these years with various chronic health issues and nearly died. In 2000, I started to develop resistance to the HIV/AIDS medications I was on, alongside a growing concern regarding the toxic effects of the current treatment on my kidneys. To survive, I enrolled in a drug study trial using the protease inhibitor ABT 387/r (Kaletra), provided by Spectrum Health. By 2001, Kaletra was officially approved for public use by the Canadian Food and Drug Administration, and I continued to be on Kaletra for 15 years until its effects on my kidneys became a serious concern in 2015.
Being highly resistant to most standard medications, I then enrolled in a 5-year drug study, Protocol TMC114IFD3013, a Phase 3 clinical study with Janssen Sciences Ireland UC to evaluate switching to a once-daily single-tablet regimen of darunavir/cobicistat/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide (D/C/F/TAF). This drug, which was later officially named Symtuza, was subsequently approved in Europe in 2017, and in Canada and the U.S. in 2018. I continued on Symtuza for the duration of the study, and I am deeply grateful to Janssen Therapeutics (Johnson & Johnson)for continuing to provide me with this life-saving medication.
Remarkably, HIV hasn’t been a concern for me given the success of newer treatments. We lived with HIV for decades, many suffered from opportunistic infections and disease, developed AIDS, we went through it all and treatment gave us our lives back, and now many of us are battling aging-related health issues—aging issues myself and others never thought we would be dealing with. I maintain a strong immune system; my viral load remains undetectable, and my CD4 count sits at 1400. Today, my health concerns have moved away from the virus itself and toward dealing with these aging health issues. Globally, about 26% of all people living with HIV are aged 50 and older.
The Spark of Advocacy: 1994 to Present
My journey as a public HIV/AIDS advocate truly began after I appeared on national television on The Dini Petty Show for World AIDS Day in 1994. My reason for publicly coming out about my living with HIV was clear and deeply personal: I did not want anyone else to go through what myself and so many others had to endure—the heavy burden of stigma, discrimination, and the reality of horrendous illness and disease.
After I came out publicly about my HIV diagnoses, I came to know, admire, and learn from legendary Canadian HIV/AIDS advocates like Ron Rosenes, Louise Binder, and Janet Connors. They taught me and motivated me which reaffirmed my commitment to ending AIDS. They paved the way to cross those boundaries of fear and discrimination, so that when I came out a decade after they did about living with HIV, I did not experience stigma and discrimination. That foundational purpose is exactly why I launched the website nearly a decade later. It is just as important now as it was in the very beginning of the pandemic for everyone, globally, to do their part to stop HIV. We must continue the work to end people getting sick and dying from this virus.
From a Personal Story to a Hand-Coded Digital Archive
When my nephew Trevor Uksik first built the website for me in 2003, I had no understanding of web design or HTML code. The website is not built with automated web generators or software templates. In 2004, I learned enough to operate and manually hand-code the website. Over the last two decades, I transitioned into the roles of Webmaster & Digital Archivist, managing thousands of files and pages individually to build a bridge to all those around the world who are also living with HIV.
This technical journey has run alongside my 30+ years of public HIV/AIDS advocacy—locally, nationally, and internationally—writing, volunteering, and public speaking. The website continues its core mission: providing a visible face to combat fear, stigma, and denialism, while demonstrating that an HIV diagnosis can be met with a long, healthy, and fulfilling life.
Keeping the Website Moving Forward
Over the years, the website has allowed me to participate in the HIV/AIDS movement to end AIDS when I am not physically able to attend events. It also affords me the opportunity to showcase the amazing work being done by individuals, groups, and organizations from around the world working to end HIV and AIDS.
The digital space changes quickly, and keeping a hand-coded website of this scale functional requires continuous effort. When the architecture of the internet shifted between 2012 and 2015, changing standard code protocols caused much of the early history of the epidemic to disappear as older HIV/AIDS organizations ceased to exist. Because www.PositivelyPositive.ca houses thousands of files and historical documents that would have otherwise vanished, preserving this digital archive is vital.
Since mid-April of this year, I have been working tirelessly on a major technical code upgrade for the website. Operating an independent, ad-free resource on a low income comes with heavy financial challenges, and at 74 years old, the physical and financial realities of maintaining website expenses are constant hurdles. Regardless of what the future holds, that uncertainty is exactly why I have poured everything into this recent technical refresh—to ensure that Bradford McIntyre Positively Positive Living with HIV/AIDS (www.PositivelyPositive.ca) (HIV/AIDS Articles, Out About HIV, Alternative Therapies, HIV/AIDS Videos, HIV/AIDS Links, HIV/AIDS News, HIV/AIDS News Archive, and personal HIV/AIDS Involvements) and more is the absolute best it can be, rremaining stable, secure, and completely mobile-friendly for the very first time, as well as accessible on modern mobile devices and computer operating systems. It is comforting to know that even if I can no longer maintain the live website, The Wayback Machine Internet Archive has archived and continues to archive www.PositivelyPositive.ca since 2004, preserving this work for generations to come..
Technology evolves, but the dedication remains uninterrupted. Health permitting, I continue my daily dedication: researching the latest HIV, AIDS, and Infectious Disease news, sorting through what I want to include, and personally writing to the original sources of news and press releases to seek permission to reproduce their materials. The HIV/AIDS News page is the success it is today because of their vital contributions.
I am incredibly proud to collaborate with a diverse network of global stakeholders—including international research institutions, academic universities, pharmaceutical developers, medical scientists, global HIV/AIDS organizations, media groups, and individuals from around the world. Whether they provide me with permission to reproduce with credit and link back, or have given me full carte blanche to share their stories, news, press release, research, events, and conferences, these daily updates underscore the vital importance of the work still being done globally to finally bring an end to HIV. Along the way, these collaborations have brought many meanngful friendships made over these 23 years.
Reclaiming Connection from Isolation
The global community I share today stands in stark contrast to how my journey began. In 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989, under the weight of being given six months to live in 1985, I isolated myself. I chose to live far away, moving from Kitchener, Ontario to Hull, Quebec, so that no one would know I was HIV positive, and family and friends I loved would not have to watch me get sick and die. I spent 4 years in isolation from family and friends I love.
Yet, through stepping into public advocacy and building this website, that profound loneliness was entirely transformed. Today, instead of being alone, my life is filled with incredible people and collaborators, and I am deeply grateful for the connections and the many friendships with fellow HIV/AIDS advocates around the world.
With Sincere Gratitude
I am deeply grateful to my husband, Deni Daviau, for his unwavering love and support by my side for 26 years. My thanks also go to my family and friends for their love and support.
I am extremely grateful to the doctors and nurses, and all healthcare professionals, who have contributed to my wellness these 42 years living with HIV!
With a special thank you to Dr. Julio Montaner. Dr. Montaner—Executive Director and Physician-in-Chief of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE)—who pioneered Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART), the triple combination therapy introduced in 1996—saved my life in 1998 when I was dying from Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP). At the time, I could not tolerate the severe medications typically used to eradicate PCP. Dr. Montaner recommended triple combination therapy, hoping it would strengthen my immune system enough to fight off the pneumonia on its own. And that is exactly what happened.
I am grateful to Julio for his commitment to 95–95–95 HIV testing, treatment and viral suppression targets and his strong resolve to end AIDS. Having him in my life, Julio inspires me to use my voice and platform.
My thanks extend to everyone who wrote to me, shared their story, and shared their news and data, along with the many friendships made along the way. Most importantly, I thank the millions of people who have trusted this website.
I would not be here today if not for all the many peoplein my life! What many years ago was an agonizing life of fear, has been turned around to one filled with such Joy and Love. I am very grateful to everyone in my life!
Contact:
Bradford McIntyre
www.PositivelyPositive.ca
Designed to Create HIV/AIDS Awareness
bradford@positivelypositive.ca
Vancouver BC, Canada
Back to…
Positively Positive - Living with HIV/AIDS:
HIV/AIDS News
For more HIV and AIDS News visit…
Positively Positive - Living with HIV/AIDS: HIV/AIDS News Archive
|
