This chapter provides information on:

• An explanation of who this book is for.
• A summary of previous editions of this book and an acknowledgement of the help of those who helped in its preparation.
• Three first hand testimonies of life with HIV, one from an HIV-positive gay man and two from African women.

Living with HIV is for people who are HIV-positive. It’s hoped that it will contain something useful both for people who have been recently diagnosed with HIV and for those who have known that they have HIV for some time. It’s been written for a UK readership.

Living with HIV includes information on the medical and social aspects of life with HIV and aims to provide basic answers to some of the questions you may find yourself asking. You might want to read the entire resource, or just dip into it at times when you need to find something out.

The information in Living with HIV isn’t exhaustive, and it isn't intended to replace discussions with your doctor or any other professional. But it should provide an introduction to the key issues involved in living with HIV and help you decide what further questions you may need to ask.

NAM produces a range of HIV information books, booklets and leaflets, and some of these are listed (along with publications from THT) at the end of each section as suggestions for further reading.

Included in this resource are first-hand accounts written by people who are living with HIV. They’re not meant to be examples of what you should do, they just give an idea of how people have coped with the realities of day-to-day life with HIV. If you'd like to contribute your experiences for publication, please email michael@nam.org.uk.

This is a revision of the second edition of Living with HIV. The information contained in the second edition has been updated and some of the sections have been thoroughly revised and rewritten.

Living with HIV has a history dating back almost 20 years and is a direct successor to Living with HIV and AIDS, published by NAM in early 1996 and the 1987 Frontliners' publication, Living with AIDS. This revised edition of Living with HIV (and the 2004 first edition and 2006 second edition), reflects the tremendous advances made in HIV treatment since the mid-1990s, but also acknowledges the real issues and complexities that life with HIV can involve.

Information from NAM’s HIV Reference Manual has been adapted for inclusion in this book.

Thanks to everybody who was involved in the preparation of Living with HIV and AIDS and editions of the HIV Reference Manual. Your hard work has made the preparation of this book a lot easier than it would otherwise have been.

I'd also like to record my thanks to Chris Smith for providing the preface to this edition, Jackie Brown, formerly of THT, for contributing the section on state benefits, James Chalmers for contributing a chapter on HIV and the law, and Steve Edwards for his enthusiastic and tireless work illustrating the print edition of Living with HIV.