Treatment Rebellions

Abstract

Transformations in HIV activism in Nova Scotia transpired around the release of a new class of anti-retroviral therapies in late 1995. Decreases in mortality and the extension of life did not spell the death of social dissent, but transformed it into bodily rebellions as members of the local HIV movement confronted onerous treatment regimens, with a multitude of pills, and inconsistent effectiveness from the earliest versions of combination therapy. As this chapter illustrate, these conflicts with biomedicine were less visible to the public than previous protests, playing out at the level of body, as activists spent more and more time negotiating the quality of their lives and futures with medical professionals. From 1995 until 1998, exchanges between HIV positive activists shifted existential questions pivoting around concerns of “when will I die?” to “how do I live well?” Amid these emergent struggles, experimental drugs opened up a new frontier for activism as a clinical trials community began to form and people living with HIV and AIDS came to sit on regulatory boards to influence the protocols surrounding the circulation and “compassionate release” of new and experimental medicines.