Since this blog was about living with HIV in rural Oklahoma I'd like to point a few things. While most of the points I make tend to deal with that topic, often I can't find articles I'd like to discuss. When I do find interesting articles, they're usually very general topics, like new meds or ideas about HIV.
In the past, if I've found pieces dealing with rural areas, they're just as apt to be overseas & therefore not very applicable to my situation. HIV in small town America isn't a popular subject. Even though a lot of HIV+ people came from these places. As for Oklahoma, there's been less than an article a year concerning HIV in this state. I've keyworded the state 19 times during this blog & only a few are dealing with articles. The rest are about politics & COVID.
Being HIV+ in a rural area isn't easy. There are hardly any resources & it isn't necessarily the safest thing for people to know your status. People often talk about the things those living rural areas should be doing, like using public transit. What they don't seem to register is that those options are not available in small towns or countrysides. Ignorance isn't just affecting the virus transmission, it impacts the treatment & care of everyone no matter what their situation.
Some might think that how I haven't managed to discuss more local, rural & even small town issues is a failure for the blog. But, in reality, it is what it's always been, out of sight, out of mind. Urban people & organizations just don't think about small towns. It isn't writers like me who have failed. It's the mentality of this society in how it treats everything outside a metro area, like it doesn't or shouldn't exist.
Cya...
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